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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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COl^I^KiHT DKPOSrr. 



FOOD MATERIALS 

AND 

THEIR ADULTERATIONS 



BY 
ELLEN H. RICHARDS 

INSTRUCTOR IN SANITARY CHEMISTRY 
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLQGY 



THIRD EDITION 
REVISED AND REWRITTEN 




WHITCOMB & BARROWS 

BOSTON, 1906 



OCT 1 "*n'06 
ASS /{ ' XXo. Htk 

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FIRST EDITION 

COPYRIGHT 1885 

BY ESTES & LAURIAT 

SECOND EDITION 

COPYRIGHT 1898 

BY HOME SCIENCE PUB. CO. 

THIRD EDITION 

COPYRIGHT 1906 

BY ELLEN H. RICHARDS 



COMPOSITION AND ELECTROTYPING BV 

THOMAS TODD 

J^ BEACON STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 



PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION 

CONDITIONS have changed with marvelous rapidity 
in the twenty years since this Httle book was written, 
and in no quarter more than in the food problem. The 
original aim of the author and her collaborators was to 
arouse women providers for their families to the need of a 
study of the materials they purchased, both from a sanitary 
and economic point of view. 

If such study was needed then, it is tenfold more 
important now, since, while the women have slept, the 
manufacturer has kept wide awake and has employed the 
chemist to help him impose upon the ignorant and credulous 
housekeeper. 

With the establishment of state and city laboratories 
there is not today the need of the Housekeepers' Labora- 
tory which the authors tried to introduce. Nearly every 
householder can find the information that she needs by a 
visit to one of these laboratories if not in the printed reports. 
To take an instance from a burning subject at this writing : 
Since 1896, when the Massachusetts State Board of Health 
first published a list of patent medicines containing alcohol, 
there has been no excuse for any citizen of the state to be 
deceivedo Common sense would have told him that such 
a practice once started would go on and other names would 
cover similar compoundso Housekeepers should make use 
of the information which is paid for by their taxes„ 

It is to ring again the call to study facts and conditions 
that the author and her coadjutors have decided to revise 
this little volume, which has been out of print for some time 



IV PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION 

They are unable to understand the slowness of young women 
to take up the study of chemistry after they have made it 
possible and have shown the practical advantage of such 
knowledge. 

Doubtless some such universal excitement as the country 
has just been through is needed to focus attention. All 
this agitation over the pure food law has come about be- 
cause the buyer has not kept himself informed as to the 
methods of manufacture, and because the impossible has 
been demanded. We are all suffering because thoughtless 
and ignorant women have demanded red berries, green 
pickles, bright catsup, and variegated candies, and have 
not even considered whether the results were possible with- 
out preservatives and coal tar dyes. It is, perhaps, an 
evidence of the ancient credulity persisting in the belief 
that science can work miracles. But it was to combat that 
idea with knowledge that this volume was written and is 
now rewritteno It seems incredible that intelligent women 
could have put upon their tables canned meats " largely 
corn meal " and not know the difference. 

To the housewife and mother we say : For the sake of 
your children keep yourselves informed of the true state 
of the food manufacture. Do not accept all sensational 
headlines, but yourself study and give your daughters an 
opportunity to study chemistry in the high school. Encour- 
age your grocer to provide honest goods. It will take time 
and thought, but on what can these be better spent than on 
that which gives health and vigor for the better enjoyment 
of all the good things of life? 
Boston, July, 1906. 



PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 

'T'HERE is neither novelty in the information which this 
little volume seeks to convey, nor originality in the 
manner of presenting it ; but when its preparation was be- 
gun, some years since, the facts here considered were for 
the most part found scattered through large and costly 
technical works, written for the conditions existing in Eng- 
land and Germany. The books claiming to be popular 
expositions were either so old as to be out of date, were 
sensational, or otherwise unsatisfactory. 

One excellent English work has recently appeared which 
is so suitable and admirable in form, as well as in material, 
that at the first glance it seemed superfluous to issue the 
present one. Yet Church's " Food " was prepared especially 
for the visitors to the Bethnal Green branch of the South 
Kensington Museum, London, while the place which this 
little volume is intended to fill is that of giving useful 
information in a form available and attractive for schools 
and for home reading without technicalities or unnecessary 
details. It has been compiled from many sources, and it 
would be impossible to credit each book with the special 
facts derived from it, since the same thing in different forms 
is often found in several works. Quotation marks are in- 
tended to indicate all passages taken verbatim. The names 
of the books consulted will be found in the list at the 
end of the volume. It is in the hope that these works 
may be more widely known, and the subjects of which they 
treat more earnestly studied, that this slight contribution 
is sent forth. 



VI PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 

The conclusions are a result of ten years' experience 
in laboratory examination of food materials. 

The author is especially indebted to Miss S. Minns 
and to Miss L. M. Peabody for valuable aid, both in the 
laboratory and in the preparation of the text. 
Boston, December, 1885. 



CONTENTS 

I. Principles of Diet . . . . . . . i 

II. The Relation of General Intelligence to the 

Quality of the Food Supply .... 4 

III. Water, Tea, Coffee, Cocoa ..... 20 

IV. Milk, Buitter, Cheese, Eggs ..... 47 

V. Cereal Foods — Barley, Rice, Oats, Maize, Rye, 

and Wheat .64 

VI. Sugar 87 

VII. Nuts 102 

VIII. Perishable Foods — ^Meat, Poultry, Fish . . 107 

IX. Perishable Foods — Vegetables and Fruits . .114 

X. Canned Foods and Jellies 122 

XL Condiments , . 130 

XII. Other Materials Used in Cooking .... 147 

XIII. Recapitulation . . . . . . . '155 

References 167 

Index , . 



FOOD MATERIALS AND THEIR 
ADULTERATIONS 

CHAPTER I 

PRINCIPLES OF DIET 

THE food of savage and semi-civilized man has 
always been of the material most readily ob- 
tained; either the flesh of animals killed in the chase, 
or wild fruits native to his country, or the products of 
crude agriculture.^ The nations of Northern Europe, 
down to nearly the middle of the present century, ate 
rye and barley bread, as wheat could not be profitably 
grown in that region ; and the Esquimaux today live 
upon the product of the seal fishery from necessity, 
not from choice. 

Now, the food products of the whole world are 
accessible to the people of the United States through 
the use of improved methods of transportation — the 
refrigerator car and steamship compartment — and 
through improved methods of preservation — by cold 
storage and by the canning process. 

This very abundance brings its own danger, for the 
appetite is no longer a sufficient guide to the selection 
of food, as it was in the case of the early peoples, who 
were not tempted by so great a variety. 

No hard and fast rule of what to eat can be laid 

1 For the diet of ancient peoples, see Food and Dietetics, 
Pavy, p. 475. 



2 FOOD MATERIALS 

down. Not only is it true that what is meat to one is 
poison to another, but it is also true that what a man 
may eat with impunity today may cause illness tomor- 
row, because the man himself is in a different condition. 
After a day spent in -pleasurable exercise in the open 
air one may take a meal which might jeopardize his 
life if taken after a day of grief, anxiety, or exposure 
to severe cold. 

Bodily energy is supplied by the food which has 
been "assimilated," made a part of the body tissues. 
Much food eaten is never so utilized. It passes through 
only slightly changed or is decomposed into toxic sub- 
stances that do the body harm and not good. Illnesses 
which come from this cause are said to be due to 
auto-infection. 

Many diseases of modern civihzation are doubtless 
due to errors of diet, which might easily be avoided. 
Numerous dietaries have been published, but nearly all 
are only of limited local application, so that when ap- 
plied elsewhere they have failed and brought discredit 
upon the whole plan. Only certain broad principles 
can be laid down, and much intelligent study must be 
brought to bear upon the question in each community. ^ 

The first general principle is suggested by Dr. Pavy, 
when he calls attention to the fact that the meat eaters 
among animals, having to hunt for their food, pass long 
intervals without any, and when it is obtained gorge 
themselves with it, and then lie torpid for days. The 
herbivorous animals, having their food always near 
them, eat all the time, and are stupid all the time. 

1 F. G. Benedict : Journal of Physiology. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 3 

Man ought not to imitate either class. It is his 
privilege to choose such times for eating and such 
materials for food as will best develop his mental 
power. Many writers seem to forget this, and to plan 
man's food as if he were a mere animal, whereas he is 
or may be very much more. His food should be such 
as to keep the animal mechanism in good order for 
the mind to use. It should not be overfed, so as to be 
sluggish, nor should it be starved, so as to be incapable 
of executing the mind's demands. 

Food should be eaten for bodily profit and not for 
pleasure only. The two should be combined in a 
correct diet. 

While the whimsicalities of the sitophobist should 
be avoided and the stomach allowed to do its work 
unwatched, yet each one should take pains to acquire 
right habits in eating, as in walking or speaking. The 
physician knows that a large part of man's ills comes 
from his persisting in bad habits of eating and from 
his dense ignorance of food and its effect on him. 

Life is too valuable a possession to be at the mercy 
of mere whims, and it is an economy of expensive 
material to make the food tell in an efficient life. 
Further discussion of these points belongs elsewhere. 
In this volume one side of the food question only is 
presented. 



CHAPTER II 

THE RELATION OF GENERAL INTELLIGENCE TO 
THE QUALITY OF THE FOOD SUPPLY 

THE prosperity of a nation depends upon the health 
and the morals of its citizens ; and the health and 
the morals of a people depend mainly upon the food 
they eat and the homes they live in. 

Strong men and women cannot be ''raised" on 
insufificient food. Good-tempered, temperate, highly 
moral men cannot be expected from a race which eats 
badly cooked food, irritating to the digestive organs 
and unsatisfying to the appetite. Wholesome and pala- 
table food is the first step in good morals, and is con- 
ducive to ability in business, skill in trade, and healthy 
tone in literature. 

This being granted, what office is of more impor- 
tance to the State than that of the provider of food 
for the families composing it .? The modern stock farm 
has given us most of the scientific knowledge we pos- 
sess on the question of foods. All this because it pays 
to know the composition of the food and its effect on 
the value of the stock. Shall the human animal be 
considered of less consequence ? 

The agricultural states of the Union have recognized 
the two fundamental professions upon which their pros- 
perity rests, and have established in their agricultural 

4 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 5 

colleges a parallel course of domestic economy to com- 
plete the education of the girls. 

This is an instance of wisdom, an example which 
might be more widely followed, for in all our towns 
and villages the housewives need to know something 
of the materials of daily consumption. 

The conditions of life have changed here in New 
England so rapidly and completely that our young 
housewives find themselves very much at a loss. The 
methods of their mothers and grandmothers will no 
longer answer. They had no trouble with their soap, 
for they superintended its making and knew its prop- 
erties. They knew how colored fabrics should be 
washed, for they had the coloring done under their 
own eyes. Wc buy everything, and have no idea of 
the processes by which the articles are produced, and 
have no means of knowing beforehand what the quality 
may be. Relatively, we are in a state of barbarous 
ignorance, as compared with our grandmothers, about 
the common articles of daily use. 

The only remedy is for our girls to learn something 
practical about these forces and the nature of the 
materials which are scattered about so freely. The 
distinction between an educated cook and an unedu- 
cated one of the same skill is that the educated one 
can tell some one else just how and why she takes each 
step, while the uneducated one can do the thing, but 
cannot tell any one else how or why she does it. Let 
our schoolgirls bear this in mind, and so study their 
chemistry and physics that they can tell why this and 
that should or should not be done. A little actual 



6 FOOD MATERIALS 

knowledge wonderfully simplifies things, and adds 
interest to the commonest deeds. 

Educated women must mark out a new plan for 
themselves. Our girls must be taught to recognize 
the profession of housekeeping as one of the highest, 
although not necessarily the only one ; but, whatever 
art or accomplishment they may acquire besides, let 
them consider that the management of a household is 
not to be neglected. The properly educated house- 
keeper is not a drudge ; she has all the forces of nature 
at her command — the lightning harnessed to give her 
light ; the stored-up energy of past ages at her com- 
mand by the turning of a stopcock ; swift steamships 
and railways bring to her fruits and vegetables from all 
climes ; the vast prairies furnish meat, game, and flour ; 
mechanical skill gives her all kinds of labor-saving de- 
vices ; the general prosperity and improving taste of 
the country admit of tasteful decoration of the rooms. 
Surely, never did housekeeping present so many charms. 
Alas ! the winged Pegasus is too strong for his unskilled 
rider, for in his train has come a style of living both 
extravagant and demoralizing. All this delicate ma- 
chinery and costly luxury are committed by ignorant 
mistresses to still more ignorant servants — conserva- 
tive by inheritance and superstitious by nature, restless 
with the very air of the new and to them wonderful 
country, where all men are equal, and naturally bewil- 
dered by the novelties of the new life, so different from 
their simple one. What wonder that the complicated 
machinery comes to grief, and the tempers of both mis- 
tress and maid are spoiled in attempting the impossible ! 



And their adulterations 7 

Within the memory of the present generation there 
has crept into the heads of the great American people 
a most pernicious and insidious idea — that labor with 
the hands alone is degrading and beneath the dignity 
of a free American citizen. Nowhere has this been 
more noticeable than in the place to which housework 
has been relegated. 

To judge by the opinion of the average schoolgirl, 
one would think that housekeeping required no more 
thought than the breaking of stones on the highway. 
Such may listen with profit to Ruskin when he says : 
" It is a no less fatal error to despise labor when regu- 
lated by intellect than to value it for its own sake. 
In these days we are always trying to separate the 
two. We want one man to be always thinking, another 
to be always working ; and we call the one a gentleman 
and the other an operative, whereas the workman ought 
often to be thinking and the thinker to be working, 
and both should be gentlemen in the best sense. Now, 
it is only by labor that thought can be made healthy, 
and only by thought that labor can be made happy." 
If this is assented to, then is not the conclusion 
clear that if our girls were capable of tJiinking about 
the many problems of housework and of investip-atino- 
new and better ways they would find the work an 
interesting and worthy one .? 

Just now educators are complaining of all classes 
of students, saying that they are too careless or too 
indolent to think for themselves, that they wish their 
knowledge, like their food, ''predigested." Women of 
sense ought not to shirk a little exercise of their minds. 



8 FOOD MATERIALS 

Political economists are beginning to take up this 
subject, for they see that the ultimate welfare of the 
country depends upon securing the maximum of utility 
for the money spent. The money's worth must be 
obtained from both material and labor. The law of 
utility requires an adequate return for the value con- 
sumed. A loaf of bread eaten by a farm hand returns 
more than its value in the produce of that man's labor ; 
so it should be with all labor, whether mechanical or 
literary. A loaf of bread allowed to mold brings no 
return in wheat or in useful thought, and it is therefore 
wasted — so much value thrown away. So, too, if a 
family consume at one meal three times as much food 
as is needed to keep them in perfect health, the excess 
is wasted, and sometimes worse, in that it causes dis- 
ease. Not that a family which can afford beef should 
live on corn meal, but that if the food is not wisely used 
for pleasure or nourishment it is wasted. 

It is believed by many that instruction in the funda- 
mental laws of hygiene and of efficient living should 
begin in the elementary school and continue through 
and beyond -the college. 

The following statement was unanimously adopted 
as the sentiment of the Lake Placid Conference in 
1902 :^ 

"The Lake Placid Conference on Home Economics 
considers that the time has come when subjects related 
to the home and its interests should have larger recog- 
nition in our colleges and universities. 

1 Proceedings of Lake Placid Conference on Home Economics, 
1904. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 9 

" Recognizing the fact that there is a strong and 
steadily increasing demand for knowledge of these sub- 
jects, believing that their educational possibilities are 
not inferior to those of other subjects now in the cur- 
riculum, and that instruction in these branches promotes 
in a high degree individual and social efficiency, we 
earnestly request that the heads of our higher institu- 
tions consider the advisability of introducing such work. 
This may be done either by the establishment of new 
departments or by the extension of courses already 
offered. 

" History, sociology, and economics deal with funda- 
mental problems of the family and the home. Biology, 
chemistry, and physics have important applications in 
the household. This has been already recognized to 
some extent by leading universities, and their curricu- 
lums include such courses as 'The Family,' 'The 
Citizen or Householder,' 'The Evolution of the House,' 
'Sanitary Chemistry,' 'Food and Nutrition,' 'Bacte- 
riology,' besides work in sanitation, physiology, and 
hygiene. 

"The members of this conference believe that an 
extension of such work where it is already established 
and its introduction in other institutions would contrib- 
ute to the solution of some of the most important social 
problems of today." 

One of the most puzzling problems which a modern 
housewife has to solve is to learn the quality of the 
various food materials which she provides for the use 
of the family, and to know how to apportion them. 
So much has been said on the subject of adulteration 



10 FOOD MATERIALS 

in the past few years that the peace of mind of a 
conscientious woman is quite gone. 

A government report on baking powder, made some 
years ago, argues that the '' housewife surely deserves 
protection against swindling as much as the farmer (for 
whom the government will make analyses of fertilizers), 
and she has no better means of ascertaining the 
strength and quality of the baking powder she buys 
than the farmer has for the strength of his fertilizer. 
The verity and accuracy of the analysis stated on the 
label should be insured, as in the case of the fertilizer, 
by its being performed by a sworn analyst. If such a 
regulation were enforced, people would soon inform 
themselves of the respective merits of the different 
varieties, and the further requirements of a certain 
standard of strength, as suggested by Professor Corn- 
wall, would probably be unnecessary, as they would 
learn to interpret the analysis, and a powder made up 
of fifty per cent of starch, for instance, would have to 
be sold cheaper than one made with ten per cent, or 
not sold at all." i 

Reference is made several times in these pages 
to the sources of reliable information, and here em- 
phasis is laid on the fact that many of the alarming 
statements, so disquieting to anxious mothers, are in- 
serted in the circulars sown broadcast and in newspaper 
advertisements by one manufacturer to decry another's 
product and to promote the sale of his own. Some- 
times these are not exactly falsehoods, but they may 
easily be interpreted in a false way. 

1 Quoted in Bulletin of the Kansas State Board of Health, 
March, 1906, 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I I 

If the buyer used a little of that thinking power 
for which we have been pleading he or she would not 
be deceived. The boldness with which misleading state- 
ments are printed leads to the inevitable conviction that 
buyers will not take the trouble to think or to find out 
from the city and state authorities what is true. In- 
stead of taking the sensible course the average woman 
believes every sensational article that she reads, and 
does almost as much harm to her family by avoiding 
a good article as by purchasing an inferior one. 

The unanimous testimony of all chemists who have 
carefully investigated the extent to which adulteration 
of food is carried on in the United States is that, while 
there exists adulteration injurious to health, there is a 
much greater injury to the morals of the community 
and loss to the pockets of the people. In other words, 
the point to which public attention should be mainly 
directed is the question of paying a high price for 
an inferior article. In some portions of the country 
ground gypsum — at perhaps a cent a pound — is sold 
for cream of tartar at ten cents a quarter of a pound. 
Now this fraud can be detected by any one who knows 
that cream of tartar is soluble in hot water, while gyp- 
sum is not. A cupful of boiling water poured upon 
half a teaspoonful of good cream of tartar will dissolve 
it almost instantly, giving a nearly transparent liquid. 

In these days of wandering attention "scare heads" 
alone fix themselves on the public mind. So it has 
come about that the word "adulteration" looms large 
in the estimation of even thoughtful persons, who pass 
by the really important matter of nutritive value and 



12 FOOD MATERIALS 

of combination. Yet the number of deaths caused by 
adulteration is infinitesimal compared with the number 
caused by auto-infection (from diseases arising within 
the body) and by personal indiscretion in diet. 

If the present interest in the misdemeanors of the 
manufacturers shall focus attention on the importance 
of food to human welfare it will have served a good 
purpose. 

A long acquaintance with the markets of the country 
in the East and West, North and South, leads the 
author to the estimate that not over two per cent of the 
total weight of the food sold in shops and markets is 
adulterated, and that not more than an additional three 
per cent is sophisticated — that is, lowered in commer- 
cial value by a cheaper ingredient. 

What proportion of the whole bulk of the family 
food is made up by the few ounces of spices, condi- 
ments, and fruit essence ? What if the color of the 
occasional pink tea or green dinner is aniline dye ! 
One-sixteenth of an ounce is probably a large estimate 
of the amount used by any one person in a year. 

The extra twenty per cent of starch in a box of 
baking powder, if a family uses ten pounds a year, 
levies a tax of only sixty to eighty cents, or twelve to 
sixteen cents a person. How many times that amount 
do all today waste on candy and soda ? The damage 
to health by the injudicious drinking of soda and various 
''bottled beverages" is many times that caused by all 
the preservatives used in food. 

It is, however, true that " the use of preservatives, 
usually salicylic acid or benzoate of soda, is very com- 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 3 

mon in the manufacture of fruit syrups and that coal 
tar dyes are freely used to give an attractive color. 

''The grape juices have usually been found pure, 
but in some instances from five to seven per cent of 
alcohol has been found. 

''All lime juices are much below standard, having 
been diluted with two or three times their volume of 
water." ^ 

It has been the history of every harmful adultera- 
tion that, as soon as the public became aware of the 
nature of it, its manufacture was stopped and some new 
device substituted. The remedy, then, for this sort 
of fraud is the education of the general public to such 
an extent that it can, with some degree of probability, 
detect any flagrant case of adulteration or substitution. 
It is the aim of this little book to place in the hands 
of housekeepers such information as will enable them 
to purchase intelligently and to know in what direction 
to be suspicious of the different food products on the 
market. The nature of the adulterations will vary from 
year to year with the advance of knowledge and with 
the detection and exposure of the accustomed frauds ; 
therefore a careful watch is needed to keep the dealers 
and manufacturers in check. The bulletins of each 
state agricultural experiment station give the results 
of examination of local markets. 

Demand is the great cause of supply ; and if many 
of the reasons for complaint were examined, it would 
be found that the grocers, of whom we so bitterly 
complain, are only supplying the demand of their cu ;- 

J New Hampshire Sanitary Bulletin, October, 1904, p. 70. 



14 FOOD MATERIALS 

tomers. Few dealers are in a position to instruct their 
customers ; there are occasional philanthropists among 
them, but most of them must make money, and they 
can do this only by supplying what the public want. 
The superstition yet lingering in the minds of people 
is nowhere shown more clearly than in the purchases 
they make for e very-day use. 

Science, and especially chemical science, has achieved 
so many marvelous triumphs within the last fifty years 
that it is looked upon as an occult knowledge, having 
the power which was attributed to the alchemy of the 
Middle Ages ; and even intelligent persons, perhaps 
unconsciously, look upon chemical operations as capable 
of transforming substances in as subtle a manner as 
was claimed to be possible by the old-time searcher 
after the philosopher's stone. As a result, the average 
housekeeper is a fit subject for the modern alchemist — 
the man who can turn cereals and apple cores into gold 
by a few neatly turned phrases calculated to impress 
the housewife with the profound wisdom of the 
manufacturer. 

" Although the words * adulteration ' and ' sophis- 
tication ' are in a degree synonymous, yet there is a 
distinction which seems borne out in legal practice. 
To adulterate the coin of the realm or the liquor of 
the bar with a baser metal or an imitation whisky is 
a heinous offense. So is the mixture of milk with the 
baser article, water, which thereby lowers its food value. 
But the ' wretched sophistry ' which obscures the na- 
ture of things on a package of prepared food misleads 
more persons and inflicts more injury on the community 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 5 

than the other, yet goes unrebuked. The most bare- 
faced assertions are printed in magazines, and ' pure 
food shows ' only whet the appetite for something 
new."i 

In considering the probabilities of adulteration, one 
important fact must not be overlooked. When prices 
are low and food is plentiful there is much less reason 
for admixture of foreign substances ; but when prices 
are high and any article scarce, then is adulteration 
rife. Take, for example, cream of tartar : in ordinary 
years, when money is plentiful and gold at par, it can 
be bought at from thirty-five to forty cents a pound ; 
but when gold was two dollars or more, as during the 
Civil War, and when the risk of importation became 
considerable, cream of tartar sold for two dollars or so 
a pound. The poor people could not pay fifty cents for 
what they had been accustomed to get for ten, but 
they did not know enough of the principles of cooking 
to get along without it, and so they asked for some- 
thing cheaper. During those years there was very 
little of the genuine article sold under the name, and 
the result was poor bread and injured health. 

A very good example of the law of supply and 
demand was given to the writer by a man of strict 
integrity, but a man of business who understood the 
public temper. When quite young he kept a small 
grocery store in one of the suburbs of Boston. Cream 
of tartar had just come into use. A woman who had 
been in the habit of purchasing her supplies at a neigh- 
boring grocery came to him one day for some articles. 

1 Air, Water, and Food, p. 155. 



1 6 FOOD MATERIALS 

The young man prided himself on the good quahty of 
his goods, therefore felt quite sure she would be pleased 
and give him her custom. What was his surprise to 
have her come back and complain of the quality of his 
cream of tartar. It did not make as good bread as 
that which she had been buying. He ventured to 
suggest that perhaps it was strong and that she used 
too much ; but she would not be satisfied and wanted 
another kind, so he made up a package for her of two- 
thirds cream of tartar and one-third rice flour ; this 
satisfied her, and she became his customer. We can 
hardly expect our grocers to become philanthropists 
and teachers of the people. Their business is to supply 
the public with the articles which it demands, and it 
is from education of the public that we must look for 
redress. There is great danger to the moral sense of 
the community from this sort of cheating — this obtain- 
ing money under false pretences (for it is nothing else). 
And the pubhc is content to be cheated ; it should be 
aroused, and by a knowledge of food materials a stop 
may be put to most frauds. 

In the new enthusiasm for social service many stu- 
dents are working at the problem of developing a fuller 
life for the sinews of the repubUc, the wage-earners. 
Each one of these students of social conditions comes 
upon a find, as it seems to him, of a great leak in the 
average family purse in the case of his grocer's and 
butcher's bills. By all laws of economy the workman 
should not spend so much of his money for food. If 
he lived more economically his family could have more 
recreation and a better house. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1/ 

There is no more burning question in sociology 
today than this, What ought food to cost ? That the 
buyer does not get his money's worth in many direc- 
tions is true. It is to add one mite to the heap of 
knowledge which the United States Government is 
sending out in its bulletins from the Department of 
Agriculture that this volume is written. 

One result of this study of social conditions is the 
introduction of cooking into the public schools and, 
along with the practice, a considerable amount of ele- 
mentary science to serve as a foundation for further 
study and an inspiration to investigation. Helpful as 
these classes have been, they are still often too much 
under the domination of the commercial cooking schools, 
as we may term them — those which depend upon the 
patronage of women who wish to outdo their neighbors 
in fancy cakes, pink teas, and decorative rather than 
nutritious dishes. In the one case food is used, like 
fabrics and flowers, as decoration and not as that 
strength-giving material which shall make men and 
women workers. 

The cooking classes of today must learn how to 
make attractive meals out of nutritious materials, and 
must pay attention to composition and quantity of food 
served as well as to its outward appearance. 

A great deal may be done by economy in the prep- 
aration of food and in the substitution of one kind 
for another, according to the cost at different seasons 
of the year. Here a knowledge of the composition of 
the various articles of diet will enable one to choose 
and yet to give the family all the constituents needed. 



1 8 FOOD MATERIALS 

Tables ^ of the relative value of foods \\dll guide a wise 
housekeeper in her selection. 

Another instance of the disincHnation to think is 
seen in the multiplication of cook books which give 
recipes rather than principles upon which variations 
may be made. 

The modern housewife seems helpless before a new 
material, utterly at a loss how to combine old materials 
into new dishes, and therefore wastes good food. 

However, the agitation of the subject of diet in its 
relation to health is calling attention to the importance 
of so vital an element in human existence, and much 
progress may be looked for in the immediate future. 

Undoubtedly it will need two generations of sound 
teaching before bad habits in eating and drinking will 
be conquered and sane, sensible methods be common. 

Of all the dangers to health from eating, that of 
unclean food leads all the rest. This uncleanness is 
due to unsanitary production, feeding, and transporta- 
tion of animals ; careless use of fertihzer on vegetables ; 
cold storage under bad conditions, both in bulk and in 
domestic refrigerators ; exposure to street dust ; and 
cooking and serving in unclean vessels. 

These conditions result not only in actual disease, 
but in lowered vitahty and lessened work power. Prob- 
ably not more than twenty-five per cent of the inhabit- 
ants of any community are doing a full day's work, 
such as they would be capable of if they were in per- 
fect health. This adds to the length of the school 

1 Bulletin 28, United States Department of Agriculture, Office of 
Experiment Station. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I9 

course, to the cost of production in all directions, to 
increased taxation, to decreased interest in life. There- 
fore we say that the safety of food materials lies mainly 
in the cleanly ways in which they are gathered, kept, 
and prepared for the table. 

For instance, berries may be picked by dirty hands, 
exposed on dirty sidewalks, covered with dust from the 
streets, served without suitable picking over and wash- 
ing. Ice may be cut from polluted water, dragged over 
sputum-covered sidewalks, and put into the ice box 
unwashed. 

In every direction careless handling of substances 
used in connection with food seems to have increased, 
and this in spite of the public dissemination of the 
germ theory of diseases. 

The watchword of every householder should be 
clean, clean, clean, chemically and bacterially clean. 

As usual, public attention is aroused to the various 
concomitant evils without touching the core of the 
whole matter — personal efficiency through good food 
habits. 

It is well, of course, to stop all the little leaks, but 
the waste at the bung hole should not be neglected. 
The renewed excitement in regard to food may be 
turned to good account in showing the essential value 
of food to the individual and to the community. 



CHAPTER III 

WATER, TEA, .COFFEE, COCOA 

IN importance to health second only to pure air is 
the quality of the water drunk. It may even be 
considered as a food, for there is at least a probability 
that its office in the system is more than that of a 
regulator of temperature and a diluent of the blood. 
From a sanitary point of view, next in importance to 
the quality of the water used is that of the other 
Hquids which are more and more frequently substituted 
for it, namely, tea, coffee, and cocoa. Beer and wine 
are neither foods nor necessary beverages in this land 
of good water and cheap coffee, hence they are not 
here considered. 

WATER 

By far the largest quantity of any one thing taken 
into the system through the mouth is water. The aver- 
age person drinks whatever is most convenient, yet 
only in the large cities with a carefully guarded water 
supply is this safe. In the country nine-tenths of the 
wells are more or less contaminated and are growing 
worse. 

It is past comprehension that men with some knowl- 
edge of soil drainage and water flow should place a well 
close by the cesspool and kitchen sink and expect it 
to keep sweet and clean. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS ±1 

Even women with no especial training should have 
reason enough to know that slops thrown close to the 
mouth of the well disappear into the ground and must 
find their way to the water. It seems to be assumed 
that all clear, cold water comes from a great depth 
and is therefore pure. Only in the case of driven wells, 
where a small pipe is driven down to a known distance, 
or in the case of the true artesian wells, which deliver 
water in great force without pumping, is this true. 
The ordinary shallow well, thirty feet or so deep, is 
usually fed, in whole or in part, from near-by sources 
and is always an object of suspicion. Such water, 
unless tested by a reliable expert, should be boiled 
before drinking, as should water taken from rivers and 
small streams. 

Protection is best secured by cooperation and the 
introduction of a safe supply for the community, in- 
stead of each one depending on his own well or cistern. 
These are often sources of danger. 

But the housewife will ask, " Is not the use of 
filters better than depending on boiled water ? " A 
coarse filter will take out coarse material such as comes 
from heavy rains, from growths of a/o;-cE, from rusting 
pipes, etc, but it requires porous porcelain or sandstone 
to take out excessively fine material such as bacteria. 
This means very slow action and soon a clogged sur- 
face. Rapid filters are all merely strainers. A flannel 
bag tied on the faucet and washed every day will serve 
for this as well as any expensive mechanical device. 
The bone black filters will take out color, but color is 
not the dangerous factor, and the water is rendered 



22 FOOD MATERIALS 

harder by the lime phosphate. All strainers collect the 
insoluble material that they remove and should be thor- 
oughly cleaned, else they are worse than nothing. All 
true filters act slowly and deliver a small quantity in 
an hour. 

It is worth noting that the New Hampshire State 
Board of Health in its July Bulletin, 1906, gives an 
illustration of a household filter, with full directions 
for construction and use, which has considerable merit ; 
but, like all good things, " it demands intelligent super- 
vision, and the occasional attention prompted by a proper 
understanding of what it is and what it ought to do from 
day to day." 

The author wishes to impress upon her readers, even 
to their weariness, that the best things are not obtained 
by machinery. Very few things are really automatic. 
Somewhere there must be a mind in control, a watchful 
eye to see the beginnings of failure to work. Let the 
housekeeper once again learn the pleasure of power over 
things, of knowledge of constituents and durability, feel 
once more the delight of invention, and see the work 
of her mind as well as of her hands gTOw before her 
eyes. 

A serious danger to the public lies in impure wells 
on dairy farms. Milk cans washed in foul water have 
often been a source of disease. On the other hand, 
the practice of using the well as an ice box cannot be 
too strongly reprehended. 

The first essential in establishing a new home is, 
then, clean, safe water. The services of an expert must 
be secured if there is doubt. Towns and villages are 



And their adulterations 23 

beginning to appreciate the fact that property is worth 
more where this satisfaction may be felt. 

One simple, popular test which may serve to detect 
harmful materials in water is as follows : Place a pint 
of clear well or spring water in a clean, white, uncracked 
dish on the stove. If, on evaporation, the water leaves 
dark rings on the dish, or a dark sediment in the bot. 
tom, there is positive evidence of danger. If, on the 
other hand, there is no sediment, we have no proof that 
the water is safe. This test does not apply to surface 
waters, which always contain harmless organic matter. 

TEA 

In regard to tea and coffee more than to any other 
class of foods is there a popular misconception of the 
differences in quality, caused solely by methods of prep- 
aration, but often attributed to adulteration. There- 
fore space is here given to the principles of obtaining 
satisfactory results in the home. 

The tea plant, Thea Sinensis, or Camellia Thea, 
, an evergreen, is a native of China, Japan, and the 
north of Eastern India, and has been there cultivated 
from time immemorial. The finest tea of China is 
grown between the twenty-seventh and thirty-first par- 
allels of north latitude But the plant will flourish from 
the equator to forty degrees north latitude. 

Tea has been used as a beverage by the Chinese 
for ages past. Tradition refers to it as early as the 
third century. It first became known to Europeans 
about the end of the sixteenth century. Until the 
middle of the seventeenth, the price was from twenty- 
five to fifty dollars a pound ; and a remarkable feature 



24 POOD MATERIALS 

in its history is the reduction which has taken place in 
its commercial value, tea now being sold at Canton at 
from fifteen to twenty cents a pound, and in this 
country at from twenty-five cents to one dollar. Tea 
is used at present by about one-third of the human 
race. The consumption in Great Britain in 1835 was 
less than one and a half pounds a head. In 1877 it 
was four and a half pounds, and in 1904 six pounds. 
In the United States in 1876 it was one and a half 
pounds. In 1904 it was about one and a quarter pounds. 
Among European nations tea is preeminently an Eng- 
lish, Russian, and Dutch drink. 

The quality of tea depends upon its flavor, which 
should be delicate and yet full ; and this is affected by 
the time of gathering (whether or not the first of the 
four yearly gatherings), by the age of the tree, by the 
country in which it is grown, by the quality of the soil, 
and by the situation of the plantation. The two classes 
of tea, the black and the green, are produced in the 
same region and often from the same trees. Green 
tea is rolled and dried very quickly, the whole process 
being finished in an hour or two, so that the leaf keeps 
its color. The idea that green tea is obtained by dry- 
ing the leaves in copper pans is a popular error, which 
has been persisted in for a long time, without a shadow 
of truth for its foundation. For black tea, the leaves 
are beaten and exposed to the air for some time, so 
that a sort of fermentation sets in. The production of 
the aromatic flavors is due to the processes of drying, 
since the leaves when freshly plucked have neither the 
odor nor flavor of the dried leaves. Hence different 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 2$ 

qualities of tea may be made from the same leaves, 
according to the treatment while drying. This is the 
source of the various kinds found in the market under 
the names Hyson, Oolong, etc. Some teas are scented 
with fragrant leaves and flowers. 

Substitutes for tea are found in nearly every coun- 
try. Sage leaves were frequently so used in England 
a century ago. Labrador tea was prepared by the 
native American tribes. The leaves of thirty-two plants 
are known to have been thus used. 

The important constituent of tea is an alkaloid called 
theine. It is present in varying proportions, from i to 
4 per cent. The theine is supposed to be in combina- 
tion with tannin, which is the most abundant soluble 
substance in tea, usually from i6 to 27 per cent. To 
the tannin is due the constipating effect of tea. The 
longer the tea leaves are steeped, the more tannin 
the solution contains. Regard for the lining of one's 
stomach would lead one to avoid all steeped teas. 
The infusion should be prepared immediately before 
drinking, or removed from contact with the leaves. 

The odor and flavor of tea are due to an essential 
oil which is present in very small quantity, and which 
is developed during the fermenting and drying. For a 
good tea the volatile oil must not escape. To make 
a good pot of tea, scald out the pot with boiling hot 
soft water, place the tea in it as soon as possible, 
pour over it the boiling water, and close the pot imme- 
diately ; allow it to stand in a hot place for a few 
minutes, but do not let it boil ; if the tea leaves are put 
in a bag or ball they may be at once withdrawn. Tea 



26 FOOD MATERIALS 

as drunk in China is always taken clear, without any 
addition of milk or sugar. The Russians add a few 
drops of lemon. 

Lo-Yu, a learned Chinese who lived about 700 a.d., 
says of the effect of an infusion of tea, that it tempers 
the spirits and harmonizes the mind, dispels lassitude 
and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents 
drowsiness, lightens or refreshes the body, and clears 
the perceptive faculties. Modern writers claim that 
tea excites the brain to increased activity, while it 
soothes and stills the vascular system ; hence its use 
in inflammatory diseases and as a cure for headache. 
Taken in excess it has the effect of a vegetable poison. 
It affects different people differently, and when it causes 
nervous excitement its use should be avoided. The in- 
fusion is stimulating and not nutritive ; hence the use 
of tea and toast, so common among the workingwomen 
of America, is very poor economy, and is an evil, one 
had almost said, second only to the use of alcohol. 
Indeed, it has been called the tobacco of women ; 
for while the tea does undoubtedly allow one to live 
on less food, it does not supply the place of food for 
any length of time. If the exhausted leaves were eaten 
after the infusion was drunk, as is the case in several 
countries, it would be more economical, since they con- 
tain about 20 per cent of nitrogenous matter, insoluble 
in water. On the coast of South America and on the 
slopes of the Himalayas the spent leaves are handed 
round among the company, sometimes on a silver salver, 
and much relished. In some places the leaves are pow- 
dered and mixed with various nutritious substances, anp 
eaten without infusion. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 2/ 

According to the best authorities tea should not be 
drunk as a beverage by persons under middle age, as 
it is liable to interfere with the development of the 
nervous system. But for elderly and delicate people 
whose stomachs are incapable of digesting much food 
the use of tea is often valuable, as it, like coffee, pre- 
vents the waste of tissue, or, in other words, a person 
requires less food when tea is taken ; but it should not 
be used for this purpose by working people, since it tells 
upon the digestive power of the stomach, and nothing 
can supply day after day the lack of nutritious food. 
Physicians now recognize a tea dyspepsia, and no one 
with a hope for better digestion should drink tea 
constantly three times a day. 

ADULTERATIONS OF TEA 

When tea was ten dollars a pound there was great 
temptation to mix other leaves with the genuine, or 
even to substitute them entirely ; also to add to the 
weight by iron filings, etc, or sand gummed on plum- 
bago and soapstone ; the exhausted leaves were also 
used. Since the price has fallen, very much less adul- 
teration is practiced. It will not pay to work over the 
tea leaves to any extent, yet they are occasionally 
adulterated, and inferior grades due to carelessness in 
preparation and to less careful cultivation are often 
found. 

The most common method of adulteration is by 
"facing," that is, by treating with certain coloring 
materials to give intensity to the color of the leaves. 
The facings in most general use are Prussian blue, 



28 FOOD MATERIALS 

indigo, plumbago, and turmeric, often accompanied by 
such minerals as gypsum and soapstone. According 
to Leach ^ the Chinese and Japanese face only the teas 
intended for export trade. 

The addition of mineral matter may be detected by 
burning a weighed quantity — one gram or more — 
in a platinum dish, and weighing the ash. Good tea 
gives from 5 to 7 per cent of ash. If the leaves are 
exhausted, the per cent will be less. To ascertain the 
strength of the tea, an infusion is the best test. If 
the decoction is very high-colored, the tea has probably 
been doctored. If there is not much extract, the leaves 
have been exhausted. The surest test of this is the 
specific gravity of the solution ; but even this is a deli- 
cate test, since the specific gravity of a solution of 200 
grains of tea in 2,000 grains of water is from 1.012 
to 1. 01 4, while that of exhausted leaves is from 1.003 to 
1.0057. Good tea should yield 26 per cent, and often 
as much as 36 per cent, of its weight to boiling water. 

Spent or exhausted leaves, leaves that have been 
once steeped and afterwards again rolled and dried, 
have been used as an adulterant, though the practice 
is now rare. 

Certain foreign leaves, as the leaves of the willow, 
elder, rose, elm, etc, have been said to be used as 
adulterants. 

Stems, fragments, and tea dust are sometimes found 
in large proportion. 

" As a matter of fact, the worst forms of tea adul- 
teration, such as the actual substitution of foreign 

iFood Inspection and Analysis, p. 285. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 



29 



leaves, once so commonly practiced, are now extremely 
rare in this country and have been for some years, by 
reason of the careful system of government inspection 
in force at the various ports of entry. The greater 
portion of the tea on our market today is genuine, but 
fraud is practiced to a considerable extent by the sub- 
stitution of inferior grades for those of good quality. 
This form of deception is in many cases beyond the 
power of the analyst to detect, and properly comes 
within the realm of the professional tea taster." ^ 

Tea tablets are made of finely ground tea pressed 
together, and are prepared for a beverage by simply 
dissolving in hot water. 

The analysis of the Samovar Tea Tablets, accord- 
ing to the Massachusetts State Board of Health, is as 
follows : 



Water 


. . 8.7 


Theine 


. 2.25 


Extract . . . 


. 54.4 


Ash 


. 5-4 


Soluble ash 


. 2.8 


Insoluble ash 


. 2.6 



In England all tea is sampled and inspected, and 
in 1879, of 575 specimens examined, only three were 
found to require special disposal — one damaged by 
water, one consisting of exhausted leaves, and one 
sanded .2 

1 Leach, p. 287. 

2 For illustrations of the appearance of tea leaves, and other leaves 
and berries, see Bell, Hassall, Blyth, Konig, Leach, Winton. 



30 FOOD MATERIALS 

The Russians are said to have the most dehcious tea 
of any nation in Europe. They have an inland trade 
with China, and choice teas are directly imported, with- 
out exposure to the heat and close air of the hold of a 
vessel, so injurious to teas of a delicate flavor. Their 
method of making tea also has much to do with its 
fine flavor, and samovars are a national feature, from 
which some lessons may be learned. 

The samovar is a large brass urn, lined with block 
tin. The urn and the stand which raises it from the 
table are all in one piece, in those I have seen. The 
urns hold from four to eight quarts of water, which is 
poured in through a small hole, three quarters of an 
inch in diameter, in the top, and they are emptied by 
a stopcock or faucet, like any hot water urn. 

It is usually one servant's duty in Russia to take 
care of the samovar, to fill it with the freshest of water, 
to kindle the fire, and to bring it in when all is ready 
for the table. A twist of paper is placed in the bottom 
of the cylinder, with some splinters of kindling wood. 
Upon this is placed charcoal broken into pieces the 
size of walnuts. The Russians themselves often have 
a special charcoal made from cocoanuts, the hard shells 
making a very dense, odorless charcoal, which gives 
off an intense heat. The fire is Hghted from the 
grate below. The chimney is put on, and the fire is 
allowed to burn until all smoke and smell from the 
wood and paper have passed away, and the charcoal 
is in a glow. Then it is carried in and set upon the 
table. 

As soon as the w^ater sends out a jet of steam from 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 3 1 

the hole at the top, beside the cyUnder, the tea is 
made by the hostess. Now notice that the water has 
just reached the boiUng point. It has lost none of its 
life or air. It is simply fresh, pure water brought to 
the boiling point. The teapot is made scalding hot, 
and the tea is taken from a caddy upon the table. At 
first only a little water is poured upon it. The chimney 
is taken off and the teapot is set upon the cylinder 
over the glowing coals, upon the same principle as 
setting the teapot in the top of the boiling teakettle 
on the fire, as we often see done here in our kitchens. 
In a few moments more boiling water is added, and the 
teapot replaced over the coals. The tea is poured into 
the cups when it has steeped sufficiently long, sugar is 
added, and instead of cream a slice of lemon is slipped 
into each cup. Fresh tea and water are put in the 
teapot, and it is again placed over the coals. 

COFFEE 

One tradition relates that, in ancient days, a poor 
dervish, who lived in a valley of Arabia Felix, observed 
a strange hilarity in his goats on their return home 
every evening. To find out the cause of this, he 
watched them closely one day, and observed that they 
eagerly devoured the blossoms and fruit of a tree he 
had hitherto disregarded. He tried the effect of this 
food upon himself, and was thrown into such a state of 
exhilaration that his neighbors accused him of having 
drunk of the forbidden wine ; but he revealed to them 
his discovery, and they at once agreed that Allah had 
sent the coffee plant to the faithful as a substitute for 
the wine. 



32 FOOD MATERIALS 

The name of coffee is given to a beverage prepared 
from the seeds of plants, which are roasted, ground, 
and infused in boiling water. The seeds most used are 
those of the Arabian coffee tree (an evergreen, Cajfea 
Arabica), which belongs to the natural order Cincho- 
nacece^ the same order to which belongs the tree from 
which are obtained quinine and the Peruvian bark of 
commerce. It is probable that the use of coffee has 
been known from time immemorial in Abyssinia, where 
the tree is native. In Persia it is known to have been 
in use as early as a.d. 875. 

The first allusion to coffee in an English book is 
believed to be in Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy" : 
"The Turks have a drink called coffee (for they use 
no wine), so named of a berry as black as soot, and 
as bitter, which they sup up as warm as they can 
suffer, because they find by experience that that kind 
of drink, so used, helpeth digestion and produceth 
alacrity." 

The introduction of coffee into Europe was bitterly 
opposed, and the use of it denounced from the pulpit. 
Nevertheless the tree has been cultivated in all tropical 
countries which have been colonized by Europeans. 

While in Mohammedan countries its use as an anti^ 
soporific in the long devotional exercises rendered 
it obnoxious to the conservative priests, and while 
some held it to be an intoxicant, and so prohibited 
by the Koran, in England it seems to have been op. 
posed by liquor dealers, who alleged that the popularity 
of the coffee houses was so great as to draw away 
their custom. The popularity of the coffee houses 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 33 

also aroused suspicion of disloyalty in the gatherings, so 
that they were made the object of a royal proclamation 
by Charles it in 1675. 

Coffee was introduced into England at about the 
same time as tea, and its use increased very rapidly, 
until it reached its maximum in 1854, when the import 
into Great Britain was 37,441,373 pounds. Since then 
the consumption has decreased, partly owing to a greater 
use of tea, and partly to the increase of coffee substi- 
tutes. The amount used in Great Britain in 1857 was 
one and a quarter pounds a head; in 1875-77 three- 
quarters of a pound; in 1904 only three-fifths. In Hol- 
land and Germany in 1885 about fourteen pounds a 
head were consumed; in 1904 less than seven pounds. 
In the United States the amount was in 1885 about 
eight pounds; in 1904 it was twelve pounds, and the 
United States consumed about half the total supply 
of the world. 

Brazil now supplies more than one-half of the coffee 
of the world, and nearly 75 per cent of that used in 
the United States. 

The most valuable constituent of coffee is caffeine, 
an alkaloid identical with the theine of tea. There is 
present about i per cent of it. The peculiar flavor 
and aroma of coffee are due to one or more oils or 
fats, which become changed to peculiar aromatic com- 
pounds in the roasting. There is about 13 per cent 
of these, and they probably possess the stimulating 
properties noticed in the infusion. Caffeic acid, an 
astringent somewhat like the tannin of tea, is present, 
but only from 3 to 5 per cent. Hence the action 



34 FOOD MATERIALS 

of coffee is not as deleterious to the coatings of the 
stomach as is that of tea. Coffee also contains sugar 
to 5 or 7 per cent, which is all converted into caramel 
in roasting. 

The exhausted berries also contain nutritious nitrog- 
enous matter, and some Eastern nations drink grounds 
and all. In Sumatra the leaves are used, and seem 
to have a large proportion of the properties of the 
berry. 

The effect of coffee on the human system is to 
counteract the tendency to sleep, and it is almost cer- 
tain that it was this property which originally led to 
its use as a beverage. It also excites the nervous 
system, and when taken in excess produces contractions 
and tremors of the muscles, and a feeling of buoyancy 
and exhilaration somewhat similar to that produced by 
alcohol, but does not end with depression or collapse. 
Professor Johnstone thus describes the properties and 
effects of coffee : "It exhilarates, arouses, and keeps 
awake ; it counteracts the stupor occasioned by fatigue, 
by disease, or opium ; it allays hunger to a certain ex- 
tent ; it gives to the weary increased strength and vigor, 
and imparts a feeling of comfort and repose." Its 
physiological effects upon the system, so far as they 
have been investigated, appear to be that, while it 
makes the brain more active, it soothes the body gen- 
erally, makes the change and waste of matter slower, 
and the demand for food in consequence less. 

For soldiers and travelers exposed to great hard- 
ships, coffee is the best agent known for restoration of 
the exhausted energies. Its use can be abused, like 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 35 

that of any other good thing, but, used understandingly, 
coffee is an important addition to one's diet. 

There are few adulterants in whole coffee, though, 
as in the case of teas, inferior qualities are often sub- 
stituted for the choicer varieties. It is very doubtful 
if the old story of coffee beans molded out of paper 
pulp deserves attention. 

Glazing is the process of coating the coffee beans 
with white of egg or sugar, or with one of a variety of 
gums. This is ostensibly for the better preservation 
of the coffee, and for the purpose of saving the house- 
wife the trouble of clarifying her own coffee. It may 
be questioned, however, whether the process is not for 
the purpose of deceiving the housewife with the sub- 
stitution of an inferior bean for a better quality. If 
this is the case, then certainly glazing is a form of 
adulteration. 

Ground coffee is variously adulterated. In Massa- 
chusetts the following adulterants have been found : 
roasted peas, beans, wheat, rye, oats, chicory, brown 
bread, pilot bread, charcoal, red slate, bark, and dried 
pellets made of ground peas, pea hulls, and cereals, held 
together with molasses.^ 

Of the ninety examples examined by the Massachu- 
setts Board of Health in 1905 only four were found to 
be adulterated. Two were not labeled according to the 
law. 

A small proportion of chicory in coffee is considered 
by many connoisseurs to impart a particularly agree- 
able flavor, and consequently its use is not condemned. 

1 Leach, p. 292 



36 



FOOD MATERIALS 



The difificulty about sanctioning such a mixture is that 
if you give a man an inch he will take an ell, and in 
the end chicory may be the chief constituent. Here 
again enters in the problem of injury to morals and 
loss to pocketbooks, and of the need for protection 
against ''swindling." 

Villiers and Collin ^ give the following analyses of 
two samples of chicory : 



Soluble in 
water 



Insoluble 
in water 



■ Water (loss at ioo° to 103°) 

Weight of total matter soluble in water 

Reducing sugar 

Dextrin, gum, inulin 

Albuminoids 

Mineral matter 

Coloring matter 

Albuminoids 

Weight of the total insoluble matter . 

Mineral matter 

Fat 

Cellulose 



In large 
granules . 



16.28 

57.96 

26.12 

9-63 

3-23 

2.58 

16.40 

3-15 
25.76 

4-58 
I2.-,2 



In 
powder. 



16.96 

56.90 

23-79 

931 

3.66 

2-55 
17-59 

2.98 

26.14 

5.87 

3-92 



As yet there has been no seed found which, when 
roasted and ground, corresponds with coffee, either in its 
physiological properties or in the chemical composition. 

The detection of the presence of chicory, caramel, 
and some of the sweet roots, as turnips, carrots, and 
parsnips, is quite easy. If a few grains of the sus- 
pected sample are placed on the surface of water in a 



1 Falsifications et Alterations des Substances Alimentaires, p. 234 
in Food Inspection and Analysis, p. 296. 



And their adulterations 37 

glass vessel, beaker, or tumbler, each particle of chic- 
ory, etc, will become surrounded by a yellow-brown 
cloud, which rapidly diffuses through the water until 
the whole becomes colored. Pure coffee, under the 
same conditions, gives no sensible color to the water 
until after the lapse of about fifteen minutes. Cara- 
mel (burnt sugar) of course colors the water very 
deeply. Dandelion root gives a deeper color than 
coffee, but not as deep as chicory ; this is true of 
bread raspings. The first two adulterations may be 
more readily detected by the taste, and the bread by 
its softening. Beans and peas give much less color 
to the water than pure coffee ; they can be readily 
detected by the microscope, as can roasted figs and 
dates, or date stones. But the use of the microscope 
is not to be learned in one lesson, and the microscopical 
examination must be made by one who has skill. In 
months of practice one sees more and more each time 
the instrument is used, so that, while it is an invalu- 
able aid to those accustomed to its use, it is as unre- 
liable as the chemical tests in the hands of the unskilled. 
The preparation of good coffee requires only an 
understanding of its properties, and is not as difficult 
or as dependent upon complicated apparatus as is often 
supposed. Raw coffee, when kept dry, improves with 
age. The best Java is said to be some seven or eight 
years old. To prepare the kernel for use, it must first 
be properly roasted by a quick heat, like that used for 
popping corn. The kernels should swell and pop in 
much the same way, though not to the same extent. 
When the flavor has thus been developed, and the berry 



38 FOOD MATERIALS 

made brittle, it is to be ground in a mill or pounded in 
a mortar as fine as may be, and then, to obtain the 
full strength, placed in an earthenware vessel, covered 
with cold water, allowed to stand for some hours, and 
brought to the boiling heat just before use. While this 
is the most economical treatment, most people prepare 
an infusion made by pouring boiling water upon the fine 
coffee. The vessel should then be closed and allowed 
to stand at a boiling heat for five to ten minutes ; it 
should never boil violently, as the delicate aroma of 
the coffee is then lost. According to one authority : 
" Coffee, to be good, must be made strong. From one 
to two ounces to a pint of water is recommended ; three 
times the volume of milk may then be added. This 
is better than to add water. In countries where the 
best coffee is made, there is a concurrence of opinion 
that roasted coffee should not come in contact with 
any metal ; but that it should be powdered in a wooden 
mortar, kept in glass or porcelain, and infused in porce- 
lain or earthenware jugs, or other closed vessels." An 
expensive method of preparation is by the percolation 
of boiUng water through the coffee, drop by drop. The 
simplest apparatus for this is a flannel bag, which 
carries the coffee, suspended in the coffee pot. 

The following directions for making coffee in three 
different ways are given by the courtesy of Mr. Frank A. 
Allen, of the Oriental Tea Company, of Boston. 

DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING COFFEE 

I. Fill the coffee pot with cold water. Take the 
required amount of coffee and turn it in. Let it float 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 39 

on the water without stirrmg. Place on the stove to 
heat, and remove from stove the moment it begins to 
boil. Decant slowly and carefully into the coffee pot 
or urn for the table, without disturbing the grounds 
which will be settled at the bottom of the pot. 

2. Measure out the required amount of coffee and 
put into a bowl, and add barely enough boiling water 
to dampen it. Let it stand seven minutes soaking. 
Put the soaked coffee in the coffee pot, pour on the 
needed amount of boiling water, and stand the coffee 
pot on the stove where it will keep z'ery hot, but not 
boil, for ten minutes. Pour into the table urn, as in 
Rule I, and serve. A fine-mesh cheese cloth bag to 
hang in the pot and hold the coffee insures clear coffee 
by this method. But be sure and soak seven minutes 
before putting in the. bag. 

3. If a French coffee pot or urn with a leacher 
to strain the coffee through is used, be sure to put the 
dry coffee needed into a bowl, with barely enough hot 
water to moisten, and soak seven or more minutes. 
Then put into the leacher, pour the needed amount of 
boiling water on it, and let it strain through. 

COFFEE SUBSTITUTES 

We find in Farmers' Bulletin No. 122, 1900, that 
coffee substitutes of domestic manufacture have long 
been known. An infusion of parched corn, or corn 
coffee, has met with some favor in the household as 
a drink for invalids, etc. Parched wheat, peas, beans, 
bread crusts, and corncobs, as well as sweet potatoes 
cut into small pieces and dried and parched, have also 
been used. 



40 FOOD MATERIALS 

The coffee substitutes found on the market today 
frequently claim a high food value as well as a special 
hygienic quality. ^' The food value of any such beverage 
is evidently due (i) to the material extracted from the 
coffee (or other substance) by the water used, and (2) to 
the sugar and milk or cream added to the infusion." 

The food value of coffee substitutes has been studied 
by the Maine Experiment Station. Flour, meal, and 
other ground grains contain little soluble material, but 
when roasted a portion of the carbohydrates is caramel- 
ized and rendered soluble. The infusions studied were 
made according to directions, varying from 20 to 
180 cups a pound of material. It was found that 
the average infusion had the following composition : 
water, 98.2 per cent; protein, 0.2; carbohydrates, 1.4; 
fuel value, 30 calories a pound. 

Skim milk, which is considered a rather "thin" 
beverage, contains : protein, 3.5 per cent ; fat, 0.3 ; car- 
bohydrates, 5.15 ; or almost twenty times as much food 
material as the averages made from cereal coffee. If 
made according to directions one would have to drink 
4.5 gallons of an infusion of one of them which made 
a special claim to high nutritive value, in order to get 
as much food material as is contained in a quart of skim 
milk. 

The infusion of true coffee also contains very little 
nutritive material. It is not ordinarily^ consumed on 
account of its food value, however, but on account of 
its agreeable flavor and stimulating properties. 

In Europe hundreds of proprietary articles are sold 
as coffee substitutes, such as " Datel Kaffee," wheat, 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 4 1 

chicory, figs, and coffee ; " Hygienic Nahrkaffee," cereals 
and acorns ; peanuts, lupines, and date stones enter into 
other brands. 

In America there are a number of favorite substi- 
tutes prepared from roasted cereals, ground peas, 
chicory, and other harmless material. 

In the decade just passed the mixture of cereal 
coffee with the genuine coffees has become very gen- 
eral. A few of the preparations labeled as cereal 
coffees in reality contain a large percentage of coffee, 
at least in one case as much as 30 per cent. 

It has been said that "in coffee substitutes, coffee 
itself should be considered the adulterant." 

The present custom in advertising coffee well illus- 
trates modern methods, which should be understood by 
the buyer. 

A gentleman came to engage the author as expert 
in a legal case against a firm which sold a coffee war- 
ranted to contain no Java or Mocha coffee, and to 
be free from the deleterious effects of these coffees. 
The attending physician had forbidden coffee to the 
plaintiff's wife, and had prescribed this brand. The 
patient grew steadily worse until it was discovered that 
the article used was nearly half coffee, not Mocha or 
Java, but presumably one or more of the dozens of 
brands now on the market from tropical countries with 
which trade has been established in recent years. 

COCOA 

The cocoa of commerce is chiefly prepared from the 
seeds of the plant Theobroma cacao, which grows in 



42 FOOD MATERIALS 

the West Indies, in many South American countries, 
and in some parts of Asia and Africa.^ 

The earliest references to the chocolate plant are in 
the accounts of the explorers who followed Columbus. 
It appears to have been known to the inhabitants of 
Central America from time immemorial. It was in- 
troduced into Europe by the Spaniards in 1520, prob- 
ably before either tea or coffee was generally known. 

After its introduction it was at first only a luxury, 
but now it is a necessity. England and the United 
States each uses annually about three-quarters of a 
pound a head. 

The term theobroma implies food for the gods, and 
is the name given to the plant by Linnaeus, who is said 
to have been very fond of the beverage prepared from 
cocoa. The Mexicans called it cacaoa quahuitl, and the 
beverage chocolatl ; and we probably derive from these 
native names our words cocoa and chocolate. 

The cocoa bean contains 50 per cent of fat, 13 per 
cent of nitrogenous substance, half of which is soluble, 
about 7 per cent of a tannin-Uke principle, 4 per cent 
of starch, and about i per cent of theobromine, an 
alkaloid resembling theine. Thus it combines in a 
remarkable way the important substances which con- 
stitute a perfect food, and it is not strange that it 
holds so high a place in popular favor. 

For the highest grades of chocolate the beans are 
selected with great care and then thoroughly cleaned 

1 A clear idea of the natural history of the plant and of the modem 
method of cultivation in South America may be obtained from The 
Chocolate Plant and Its Products, pubUshed by the Walter Baker 
Company. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 43 

from all dust and foreign matter. The next step in 
the process of preparing the chocolate for market is the 
roasting, and here the utmost caution is used to secure 
a uniform effect ; for if the seeds are under-roasted the 
full flavor is not obtained, while in over-roasted seeds 
the flavor is likely to become bitter. By the roasting, 
the shells become detachable, and are removed and sold 
as cocoa shells, while the beans, merely cracked, are 
sold as cocoa nibs. As some time is required to 
soften the cracked cocoa, the prepared forms are pre- 
ferred, with or without fat. For these preparations 
the beans are ground to an extreme fineness, so as to 
form a perfectly homogeneous mass. If the chocolate 
is to be a plain chocolate, it is flavored delicately and 
poured immediately into molds. If a sweet chocolate 
is to be made, the ground chocolate is mixed with a 
definite proportion of perfectly pure, finely pulverized 
sugar, flavored with the purest vanilla, and poured 
into molds. When the chocolate is cooled and formed 
into cakes, it is wrapped and packed for the market. 

Many persons find in chocolate too much fat for 
easy digestion. In certain preparations a definite pro- 
portion of the oil is extracted, and we have breakfast 
cocoa^ a valuable food even for delicate stomachs. 

In inferior (not necessarily cheaper) grades of choco- 
late chemical means are used for its preparation from 
the seed instead of the natural physical means which 
preserve all the characteristic virtues. For instance, 
they may be treated with caustic or carbonated alkalies 
to increase the solubility of the fat, and deepen the 
color which gives an impression of greater solubility. 



44 FOOD MATERIALS 

In most cases these chemical additions are found in 
the ash after wholly burning the preparation. 

Sometimes an attempt is made to supply the loss 
of flavor by the use of fragrant gums. 

Adulterations are frequently found in the sugar 
which is combined with chocolate, and in the vanilla. 
Or, on account of the high price of vanilla, an artificial 
extract is substituted. Sometimes ferruginous earths 
have been found, and occasionally foreign fats are used. 

** In preparing chocolate as a beverage for the table 
a mistake has frequently been made in considering it 
merely as an adjunct to the rest of the meal, instead 
of giving it its due prominence as a real food, contain- 
ing all the necessary nutritive principles. A cup of 
chocolate made with sugar and milk is in itself a fair 
breakfast." ^ 

'* Chocolate or cocoa is not properly cooked by 
having hot water poured over it. It is true that as 
the whole powder is in suspension and is swallowed, 
its food material can be assimilated as it is when the 
prepared chocolate is eaten raw ; but in order to bring 
out the full fine flavor and to secure the most complete 
digestibility, the preparation, whatever it be, should be 
subjected to the boiUng point for a few minutes." ^ 

Among the nations of tropical America it was the 
custom to beat a mixture, of which chocolate was 
the chief ingredient, into a froth by means of stirrers 
or mallet-like implements, thus making a delicious 
beverage. 

^ Suggestions relative to the cooking of chocolate and cocoa in 
The Chocolate Plant and Its Products, 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 45 

Thomas Gage, in his " New Survey of the West 
Indies," says : '' The name chocolatte is an Indian 
name, and is compounded, as some say, from atte, or 
as others, at/e, which in the Mexican language signifieth 
water, and from the sound which the water (wherein 
is put the chocolate) makes, as c/ioco, choco, cJwcOy when 
it is stirred in a cup by an instrument called a 'molinet,' 
or 'molinillo,' until it rise and bubble into a froath." 

A similar thick, foamy drink may be made by the 
addition of one tablespoonful of cornstarch, three table- 
spoonfuls of sugar, and two ounces of chocolate to a 
quart of milk. The cornstarch should be mixed with 
about a gill of cold milk, the chocolate melted with the 
sugar over hot water, and all added to the remainder 
of the milk just as it comes to the boiling point. If 
a thinner beverage is desired, the cornstarch may be 
omitted. 

In making tea we make an infusion. In making 
coffee we make either an infusion or a decoction. Now 
in making cocoa from the nibs or the cracked cocoa, 
we make a decoction ; that is, the cocoa must actually 
boil. If it stands upon the stove or range, and steeps 
without boiling, we have an infusion, and we obtain as 
a result an intensely bitter drink. But if it boils — and 
it is an important, curious fact the difference a few 
degrees of heat will make — we have a smooth, oily, 
nutty beverage, which is most agreeable to drink, and 
very nutritious also, which the bitter beverage is not. 
There is the same difference between an infusion and 
a decoction of coffee, but the bitter of coffee is not so 
unpleasant nor so marked. Tea, on the contrary, and 



4^ FOOD MATERIALS 

also all herb teas, like mint, catnip, etc, are harsh 
and bitter when boiled, losing all their fragrance and 
delicate flavor. Tea is more of a mere beverage than 
coffee, which approaches a liquid food, though not so 
nearly as cocoa does. 



CHAPTER IV 

MILK, BUTTER, CHEESE, EGGS 
MILK 

NEXT to water the milk supply of the family must 
be looked to. 

The milk of animals has always been used as human 
food. In early ages it was the milk of goats, asses, etc., 
which was common ; now, however, cow's milk is used 
all over the world. 

The composition of milk may be roughly stated as 
follows : water, 86 per cent ; lactose, or milk sugar, 
5.5 per cent ; milk fat, 4 per cent ; casein, or curd, 4 per 
cent; saline matter, 0.5 per cent. The fat is held 
in suspension in the liquid in the form of globules, of 
which it is estimated that there are about three and 
a half millions in every cubic millimeter. 

The variations in the food value of milk are great, 
so that it is quite probable that one man pays much 
more than his neighbor for the same amount of nutrients. 

Milk is often called the perfect food, since it contains 
all the elements necessary for nutrition, and in the right 
proportions. One of the greatest advances in modern 
medicine, as well as in wholesome living, is the recog- 
nition of milk as an article of diet, especially for invalids, 
young people, and fever patients. Most persons can 

47 



48 FOOD MATERIALS 

digest it when a little lime water is added, if it does 
not suit them without it. 

For infants milk is the important food. Until they 
are twelve or thirteen months old it should be the only 
food. It is essential, therefore, that the milk supplied 
be of good quality, and from healthy, well-fed animals. 
Unfortunately, however, it is true that the deaths 
of many children from cholera infantum and kindred 
diseases are due to injurious milk. 

According to the secretary of the Massachusetts 
State Board of Health, deaths from diarrhoeal diseases 
are much more frequent among bottle-fed children than 
among those fed on the mother's milk. He estimates 
that ninety per cent of the deaths among children were 
of those fed on bottle milk. A similar estimate is 
made by New York authorities. 

Since infant mortality is a direct loss to the State, 
as well as a personal grief, communities are waking up 
to the necessity for a careful investigation of causes, 
and for stringent regulations as to the purity of the 
milk.^ The deterioration in the milk of late years is 
due largely to the change from the clean, intelligent 
dairy woman who cared for the milk, to the hired, 
irresponsible laborer who has no sense of cleanliness. 

The ordinary cow barn is filled with dust and filth, 
and in the summer with flies, all contributing possible 
disease-bearing organisms. Among these are certain 
bacteria which find an especially congenial home in 
milk and multiply rapidly, causing the so-called lactic 

1 For the question of the control of the milk supply, see Farmers' 
Bulletin No. 42, Office of Experiment Stations; also Bulletin No. 20, 
Bureau of Animal Industry. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 49 

fermentation ; that is, the milk sugar undergoes decom- 
position, whereby lactic acid is formed and the milk 
becomes sour. 

Inasmuch as it has been proved that milk can act 
as a carrier of infection, the utmost care should be taken 
in the dairy to render it impossible for the milk to be 
exposed to any kind of impurities. 

Another potent cause of poor milk is the concentra- 
tion of consumers in the cities, necessitating the trans- 
portation of milk from greater distances, so that it is 
of greater age. Hence has arisen the practice of adding 
preservatives to offset the lack of cleanliness. 

But greater danger to health comes from the use 
of milk produced under improper conditions, and from 
diseased or wrongly fed cows, than from any substances 
added to the milk — unless the water taken from a foul 
well is used. 

The most frequent method of adulteration is by the 
addition of water, which reduces the nutritive value for 
the same volume of milk. 

Other adulterants are coloring matters, added to 
give the requisite yellowness, and various chemical 
preservatives to prevent souring. 

The common belief that much of the milk sold is 
a mixture of chalk and water is quite unfounded. 

It is a wrong to sell watered milk, but it is a greater 
wrong to use foul water to dilute the milk. The pollu- 
tion of the milk by means of the swill-fed cow is not 
nearly so prevalent as formerly, for a much closer watch 
is kept by the inspector. 

Since cream, which brings a higher price than milk, 



50 FOOD MATERIALS 

has come into general use, ''topped" milk is not un- 
common. Thus, by loss of the fat, the nutritive value 
is again reduced, and inanition of the child is the result. 

While skim milk, if sold as whole milk, must be 
considered an adulterant, it has in itself a definite food 
value. Whole milk and skim milk contain practically 
the same amount of protein, but the former costs at 
least twice as much. "As a source of protein, there- 
fore, the skim milk is twice as economical as whole 
milk. On the other hand, the fuel value of skim milk 
is practically but one-half that of whole milk, so that 
a given amount of energy is given for the same price, 
either in whole milk or skim milk."^ 

Of practically the same composition as skim milk 
is buttermilk, which is the liquid left after separating 
the fat of the cream in butter making. To many per- 
sons this is a more agreeable beverage than either whole 
milk or skim milk. 

The housewife should note certain evidences of good 
and bad milk : ( i ) There should be no sediment of dirt 
on standing. (2) There should be about one-sixth the 
total depth of cream — the narrowing neck of a bottle 
may make it seem even more. The milk should keep 
sweet twenty-four hours, and when it tastes sour it 
should separate into curds and whey, not be simply 
a uniform white mass, as is likely to happen when soda 
is used to keep it. 

The Quarterly Bulletin of the Dairy and Food Com- 
mission of the State of Wisconsin gives the following 
test as "a practical means of tracing the source of 

1 Farmers' Bulletin No. 72, Office of Experiment Stations. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 5 1 

tainted conditions in milk. The test is made by adding 
rennet to milk; after curdling, the curd is cut into 
small pieces, thus allowing the whey to separate as in 
cheese making. The drained curd is then incubated 
at about blood heat to facilitate the rapid growth of 
gas-forming bacteria. Organisms capable of forming a 
gassy curd are thus able to overcome the lactic bacteria, 
so that within six or eight hours the presence of pos- 
sible taints may be demonstrated. Taints caused by 
other than gas-forming organisms may also be detected 
by this forced development. Curds made from good 
milk occasionally show large, irregular, so-called me- 
chanical holes, due to the lack of pressure on the curd 
particles, while poor milks contain innumerable small 
pin holes and possess a decidedly bad odor." 

Many States have commissions to investigate the 
conditions of dairies and creameries and to publish an 
analysis of the results. The following from a report 
of the Wisconsin State Commission shows the care 
with which such investigations are pursued : 

" Date, ; name of creamery, ; proprietary 

or cooperative, ; location, ; owner or man- 
ager, ; post-office address, ; name of operator, 

; he has not attended dairy school at ; num- 
ber of patrons, ; number of pounds of milk daily, 

; number of pounds of butter daily, ; loss of 

fat in skim milk, .20 per cent ; skim milk was divided 
by automatic weigher ; there were no screen doors or 
windows ; cream hauled to daily ; drainage under- 
ground a distance, then to open ditch along the road ; 
some bad odor in creamery ; location and condition of 



52 FOOD MATERIALS 

skim milk tank upstairs, not clean ; condition of build- 
ing, fair ; the building is painted outside ; condition of 
apparatus, poor ; condition of surroundings, fair ; con- 
dition of patrons' milk cans, fair ; condition of milk in 
cans, good. Remarks : A general lack of cleanliness 
in this place." 

An example of bad conditions may be taken from 
a town in Massachusetts whose milk supply is said to 
increase fifty per cent in summer, owing to the influx 
of summer visitors. Of i6o dairies examined, two- 
thirds were found with conditions to which it was 
necessary to call the attention, not only of the owners, 
but also of the Board of Health. 

There were lOO cow barns needing a general clean- 
ing and whitewashing. In seventy-seven cases the cows 
were in such dirty condition that their milk could not 
be drawn without becoming contaminated with detach- 
able filth. In forty-four barns there was an accumula- 
tion of manure which required removal, and forty-five 
cow-yards contained large pools of liquid manure. In 
one case the owner bedded his cows in horse manure. 
In four barns the privy was situated directly behind 
the cows, and in one the floor was made to serve as a 
privy. 

The Illinois Experiment Station has issued an excel- 
lent bulletin (No. 91, December, 1903) on preventing 
the contamination of milk. 

The Storrs Experiment Station of Connecticut in 
June, 1906, issued Bulletin No. 42, considering the 
quahty of milk as affected by common dairy practices. 

Encouragement to produce good milk is needed 
instead of a cry against bad milk. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS §3 

// always costs to be clean^ and clean milk costs 
more to produce and deliver. Several right-minded 
persons have tested the public's willingness and have 
found it wanting. This must be remedied. 

If housewives would unite in demanding certified 
milk, and be willing to pay for it, the quality would 
rapidly improve. It is poor policy to balk at an increase 
in price which means health and even life, instead of 
illness and death, to thousands of children. 

Too loud a note cannot be sounded in warning, but 
it must be based on truth, not on exaggeration. The 
twentieth century woman should not allow herself to 
be imposed upon by sensational literature, but should 
inform herself of local conditions. 

Cooperation is here a necessity, and should be sup- 
ported as a business venture. 

CONDENSED MILK 

The extremely unstable character of milk, and the 
consequent difficulty of transportation and preservation 
for any length of time, have led to the adoption of 
various processes for concentrating the valuable con- 
stituents, which are only about 14 per cent of the 
weight, into a smaller bulk and more stable condition. 
The usual process consists in simple concentration. 
The milk is evaporated in vacuum pans, and toward the 
end heated to 212° F., in order to destroy any germs 
of mold. It is put up in tin cans, sealed hermetically, 
and may then be kept any length of time. Sometimes 
a little sugar is added. In either case, the product is 
sold as condensed milk, which often contains about 
one-third as much water as the original liquid. 



54 FOOD MATERIALS 

Evaporated milk is offered as a solution of the 
problem of supplying a safe milk for children and 
invalids during the summer months. It is pure milk 
evaporated, without the addition of sugar, in a vacuum 
pan at a temperature of about 130° F., or below 
150° F., which is much lower than that at which con- 
densed milk is usually prepared. At this low tem- 
perature the milk is far less changed from its normal 
condition, and is more digestible than is the case when 
it is heated to boiling. 

CREAM 

When milk is allowed to stand at rest for some 
hours, the fat globules rise to the top, forming a layer 
from one-tenth to one-fifth of the total thickness. This 
layer, rich in fat, is called cream, and contains from 
20 to 40 per cent of fat. 

A sign of increasing prosperity and of more luxu- 
rious living is the extensive use of cream purchased as 
cream. Apartment dwellers have no facilities for ''set- 
ting" the several quarts of milk needed to supply the 
breakfast table with this esteemed adjunct to the coffee, 
fruit, and cereal, even if the milk could be delivered 
to them in a sweet condition. 

The separator at the dairy, a truly modern machine, 
does in a few minutes the work of hours in dividing 
most of the fat from the fluid emulsion without churn- 
ing it to butter. Reduced to one-fifth the bulk, it is 
much more easily transported and delivered to cus- 
tomers. It is sold as heavy or thin cream. 

Probably this use of cream has been the means of 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 55 

abolishing the now berated American breakfast of steak 
or eggs and bacon with hot breads. 

The good prices obtained for cream have doubtless 
led to some abuses, such as the addition of thickening 
substances and preservatives. Sucrate of lime, or vis- 
cogen, is not in itself harmful, nor does it injure the 
cream. If, however, a person is avoiding the use of lime 
salts in water and other foods, this unknown amount 
of the forbidden substance may prove hurtful. Gela- 
tin is not an objectionable article of diet when properly 
prepared, but as a thickener of cream it is out of place. 

Cream naturally thickens on standing, owing to the 
chemical changes in even clean cream. 

Sterilized cream has not quite the flavor of fresh 
cream, but it is safer than dirty cream unsteriUzed. 
Fortunately, cream is very easily changed in taste and 
odor by foreign substances, and therefore is not so 
deceptive as other adulterated products. 

The use of cream instead of milk for infants renders 
it imperative that the public generally should be awake 
to the conditions of the cream market and should sus- 
tain the city and state authorities in their endeavors 
to protect the helpless children. 

The matter is in the hands of the buyer. If he 
will use only certified milk and cream, then the laws 
can be enforced. 

BUTTER 

Butter is a very important article of diet, especially 
in English-speaking countries. It is of all animal fats 
the favorite, not only on account of its pleasant taste, 



56 FOOD MATERIALS 

but because it is the most easily digested. Butter with 
bread forms an almost perfect food. 

Herodotus, in his account of the Scythians, makes 
an obscure mention of butter, and this is the earliest 
reference known. Dioscorides is the first to observe 
that when melted and poured over vegetables it serves 
the same purpose as oil, and that it can be used in 
pastry. It is not mentioned by Galen, or other writers 
of his time, as food, and indeed to this day it is little 
used in southern countries, so that it might almost be 
said to be a product of northern civilization in its 
present uses. There is undoubted evidence that butter 
was well known to the Anglo-Saxons and used for 
salves and medicines. 

Butter is prepared by separating the fats from the 
water and curd of milk by agitation, which causes the 
lighter particles of fat to rise. These then are collected 
and worked into a homogeneous mass„ This process 
seems to be very successfully accomplished at present 
by the centrifugal machine. 

Good butter consists of fats, water, and curd. The 
water varies from 8 to 16 per cent. Over 16 per cent 
is injurious to the keeping of butter. There should 
not be over i per cent of curd left, because it tends to 
grow rancid and mold, thus tainting the butter. 

The manufacture of butter has passed from the 
care of the farmer's wife to that of the company em- 
ployee — to its advantage in some respects, but with 
certain deteriorations. 

The skilled dairy woman, with a pride in the flavor 
and keeping qualities of her product, furnished an arti- 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS ^y 

cle rarely found today, in spite of the artificial ripening 
of the cream by B^i, or whatever bacterium is the 
favorite. On the other hand, creamery butter is of a 
more uniform quality and better flavor than the butter 
of ignorant and careless butter makers. 

There is a great temptation to cheat the pigs to 
increase the yield of the valuable product, butter, by 
stuffing with the curd. The old-fashioned country but- 
ter, packed in tubs to keep eight months, contained 
only I o to 12 per cent water and curd. The creamery 
butter of today, especially the light-colored, unsalted 
variety, frequently contains 20 per cent water and 5 to 
10 per cent curd, lessening its fuel value, although 
increasing its nitrogenous value, which is not what we 
expect to pay for in butter. The author has found as 
high as 33 per cent of curd. 

This excess of curd does not injure the flavor, but 
rather adds to it when fresh. Since, however, 'it is 
more readily attacked by decomposing organisms which 
give very disagreeable tastes and odors, such butter 
soon spoils and may become dangerous. It should 
therefore be eaten while fresh. 

The United States standard for fat is not less than 
82.5 per cent. 

Butter is very sensitive to unpleasant odors, and 
must be kept with great care, in closed vessels, since 
even a few hours' exposure to ordinary air injures the 
delicate flavor. It would be well if all girls could serve 
an apprenticeship in a good dairy for a few weeks, in 
order to learn cleanliness. 

The ;o to S6 per cent of butter fats are for the 



58 FOOD MATERIALS 

most part identical with those in ohve and palm oils, 
and in other animal fats ; but the peculiar flavor of 
butter is due to the presence of 5 to 8 per cent 
of butyric, capric, caprylic, and caproic acids. These 
fatty acids are much less stable than oleic, palmitic, 
and stearic acids, which are often called the fixed fatty 
acids. In butter, human fat, and goose fat, palmitic 
acid is the most abundant. It is so named from its 
occurrence in palm oil. Oleic acid is common to these 
fats, and to beef, mutton, and hog fats. Stearic acid 
is found in small quantities in butter, while it is a chief 
and constant constituent of beef tallow. 

During the Franco-German War, in 1870-71, a 
French chemist, Mege-Mouries, invented a process for 
obtaining from other animal fats the fatty acids com- 
mon to them and to butter, and making from them 
a very fair artificial butter, for the use of the French 
army. The name oleomargarine is derived from the 
fatty acids present — oleic and margaric, as the mixture 
of stearic and palmitic acids was formerly called. 

Oleomargarine and butterine are prepared in a sim- 
ilar manner from oleo oil (beef fat) or neutral lard and 
milk by churning and salting and coloring to imitate 
butter. These are wholesome food products, and their 
use furnishes a much needed fat to an economical diet. 
As a rule oleo keeps better than creamery butter, and 
if the latter is loaded with curd the oleo has a higher 
food value. But they should be sold under their own 
names. 

Rarely has there been a fraud so difficult to 
detect, since not only the apparent but the real 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 59 

differences between genuine and artificial butter are 
but slight. Yet careful chemical analysis will show 
about 87 per cent of fixed fatty acids in butter, 
and about 95 per cent in the fats used in making 
artificial butter. 

Reichert's process of determining the volatile acids 
peculiar to butter answers well in skilled hands. An 
analytical chemist has little difficulty in deciding upon 
the quality of a suspected sample. The expense at- 
tending such an examination, however, prevents its 
application as often as is desirable. The detection of 
the crystals of the different fats, as proposed by Taylor, 
may be an important aid. Some simple and easily ap- 
pUed test is much to be desired, but the public yet 
awaits its discovery. 

Butter which has become rancid may be sweetened 
or ** renovated " on a large scale by a process long used 
by the housewife in essential. It is melted, the curd 
and brine allowed to settle, and the scum removed ; the 
butter fat is then aerated by a current of air blown 
through it in some cases to take out disagreeable odors, 
and then churned with milk, whole or skimmed, cooled, 
and packed. This butter will not keep as long as 
fresh, well-worked butter, and if sold without a correct 
label is a fraud. 

The carrot and certain weeds served the farmer for 
his butter color. The dairies used annato, but the 
creameries find the coal tar yellows preferable. These 
may be detected by boiling bits of silk or wool in an 
alcohohc solution of the butter fat with the addition 
of water and cream of tartar. 



60 FOOD MATERIALS 

One of the State chemists says, ''The practice of 
coloring butter is now so firmly fixed, and the taste 
of consumers so bent to the false standard, that it is 
not probable that it will ever be abandoned." 

CHEESE 

Good cheese is composed of the total solids of milk 
curdled by rennet before the milk sours. Poor cheese 
is made from skimmed milk, and hence has less fat. 
Cheese is really a condensed milk, less the sugar and 
part of the mineral salts, and is a valuable article of 
diet, replacing meat, to a great extent, with those whose 
stomachs it suits ; but on account of unjustifiable preju- 
dice it is much neglected. One pound of dry cheese is 
estimated to contain as much nitrogenous substance as a 
pound or a pound and a half of beef as purchased. The 
rind of the cheese may have been brushed over with 
some metallic salt to preserve it from the attacks of 
fungi, etc, so that it is well to pare it off before eating. 

The ripening of cheese has been the subject of 
much study. 

The dairy schools give close attention to the pro- 
duction of all varieties, and very soon American cheese 
may be had of any desired quality, instead of the for- 
mer crude, tough substance that is digested only with 
difficulty. 

The great advantage of cheese is that it may be put 
up on the dairy farm under cleanly conditions and then 
transported and kept without change, being too con- 
centrated for ready decomposition. 

Dangerous preservatives rarely find their way into 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 



6i 



cheeses. " Filled " cheese has the butter fat replaced 
by foreign fats, such as lard and cotton seed oil. 



Composition of Different Kinds of Cheese i 



Cheddar ....... 

Cheshire 

Stilton 

Brie 

Neufchatel 

Roquefort 

Edam 

Swiss 

Full cream, mean of 143 
analyses 



Water. 


Casein. 


Fat. 


Sugar. 


Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Per cent. 


34.38 


26.38 


32-71 


2.95 


32-59 


32-51 


26.06 


4.53 


30-35 


28.85 


35-39 


1-59 


50-35 


17.18 


25.12 


1.94 


44-47 


14.60 


33-70 


4-24 


31.20 


27-63 


33-^^ 


2.00 


36.28 


24.06 


30.26 


4.60 


35.80 


24.44 


37.40 


• • 


38.60 


25-35 


30.25 


2.03 



Ash. 



Per cent. 
3-58 
4-31 
3.83 

5-41 
2.99 
6.01 

4-90 
2.36 

4.07 



EGGS 

Eggs contain all the necessary constituents of food 
in the most concentrated form — so concentrated as 
to be unsuited for the whole of the daily ration. For 
convalescents they are invaluable when they can be 
obtained fresh. 

Eggs as bought consist of about 1 1 per cent shell, 
32 per cent yolk, and 57 per cent egg-white or albumen. 
The yolk has the highest food value because it contains 
less water and more fat. Egg-white contains 86.2 per 
cent water, 12.3 per cent proteid, 0.2 per cent fat. 
Egg-yolk contains 49.5 per cent water, 15.7 per cent 
proteid, 33.3 per cent fat. The yolk contains more 
mineral matter and is an especially valuable food in 
anaemic and nervous conditions. 

The egg production of the United States is one of 



1 Table compiled by Woll, in Leach, p. 158. 



62 FOOD MATERIALS 

the most important and valuable. It is estimated at 
not less than a billion dozens. Dietary studies have 
shown that eggs constitute three per cent of the total 
food. 

The normal eggshell has a natural coating of mu- 
cilaginous matter which prevents the various micro- 
organisms from passing through, at least for a time ; 
but if this is washed or rubbed off putrefaction sets in 
and proceeds with rapidity because of the rich food 
material. 

Water evaporates through the pores of the shell, 
so that old, unvarnished eggs are of greater specific 
gravity than new-laid. 

Cold storage in a fairly moist atmosphere is the 
usual method of keeping and transporting eggs. They 
must be kept by themselves as they absorb odors very 
readily. 

Various methods of preserving — packing in oatmeal 
or bran, covering with brine or lime water, treating with 
salicylic acid, varnishing with collodion or shellac — 
have been tried, with a usual loss of half the pack. 

At the North Dakota Experiment Station marked 
success has been obtained by coating the fresh, un- 
washed eggs with a dilute solution of water glass (one 
part of the thick, not too alkaline syrup as purchased 
to ten parts of water). These eggs are said to keep 
all their qualities, even that of beating up well for 
frosting. 

Desiccated eggs have been successfully prepared for 
provisioning camps and expeditions. The water being 
removed enables four times the food value to be carried 
in the same weight. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 63 

Several egg substitutes have appeared on the mar- 
ket. One of considerable food value is said to be made 
from skim milk and flour, probably slightly colored. 
Others seem to be chiefly starch highly colored. These 
cannot replace eggs in the diet, since they contain little 
nitrogen and almost no fat. 

One '* remarkable substitute for fresh eggs" has 
recently been put upon the market with the claim that 
''the contents of this can is equal to and will do the 
work of thirty-six fresh eggs." Examination shows it 
to consist almost wholly of artificially colored corn meal. 
The most astonishing thing about such frauds is that 
intelligent women can be found to buy them. The 
German immigrant woman would know better. 



CHAPTER V 

CEREAL FOODS BARLEY, RICE, OATS, MAIZE, 

RYE, AND WHEAT 

THE term cereals has come to have a limited 
significance since the universal introduction of 
breakfast foods. 

The public needs to be reminded that there are 
only six or seven grains in common use and that the 
365 brands of cereals must be made from these, and 
therefore that the same thing must be sold under many 
names. 

Cereals all belong to the family of grasses, and some 
member of the group flourishes in every latitude. Bar- 
ley grows even within the arctic circle, and thence 
southward are found, in the following order, oats, rye, 
wheat, maize, while within the tropics rice is found. 
The seeds of these plants have been used for the food 
of man from time immemorial. They are the most 
abundant of all food substances. The Egyptians have 
a tradition that barley was the first to be so used. 

A general description will serve for all the seeds or 
kernels. The shape is from round to oval or oblong, 
with a groove on one side running the length of the 
kernel. This indentation serves to protect the germ 
which it incloses. Outside the germ are usually rec- 
ognized three layers. The outer layer, which serves 
to hold the inner ones compactly together and to keep 

64 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 6$ 

them dry, is made up chiefly of woody fiber, or cellu- 
lose, and is comparatively worthless for the purpose of 
nutrition. Next there are in most grains one or more 
layers of cells which contain nitrogenous and phos- 
phatic compounds ; while within, forming the body of 
the seed, is found the mass of starch granules, larger 
and smaller, with intermingled cells of the glutinous or 
albuminoid constituents. All these are supported in a 
loose framework of cellular tissue. The proportion of 
these constituents varies greatly in the different grains 
and in varieties of the same grain. Rice has the largest 
proportion of starch, and oats contain the most oily and 
phosphatic material. 

The term Jiour is often used to designate the meal 
or powder obtained by the grinding of any species of 
grain or seed. But the use of the word in the United 
States is for the most part limited to the finely ground 
portion, the more starchy portion ; while by the term 
meal — a Saxon word meaning finely ground, soft to 
the touch — is understood the product- of the grinding 
of the whole grain. Both terms are generic, and are 
qualified by a descriptive adjective, as wheat flour, 
corn meal, etc. 

Barley and rice are for the most part cooked whole ; 
oats and maize are coarsely crushed ; while wheat and 
rye are finely ground and separated into the flour, 
or white sifted starch and gluten, and the husk or 
bran which is left after the bolting, as the sifting is 
technically called. 

The greatest change in the habits of food consump- 
tion which the last twenty years has developed is in 



66 FOOD MATERIALS 

the greatly increased use of prepared cereals — both 
cereals which may be cooked quickly and those which 
may be eaten uncooked. 

There are several causes contributing to this result- 
Chief of these is the money to be made by the quick 
marketing of a popular food. When a particular name 
begins to pall, the same material, or that combination 
with a slight variation in appearance, is put on the 
market under a new name. Prizes are offered for a 
name which will sell the packages most quickly. Much 
ingenuity has been spent on this manufacture of cereals 
into new shapes, and more on the advertising descrip- 
tion of them. The constant demand for something 
new, as if Burbank could indeed use the wizard's wand 
on the grain fields, has flooded the market with pre- 
pared foods — a brand for every day in the year made 
from the varieties of grains known for thousands of 
years. 

The introduction of gas stoves and the habit of a 
continental or meatless breakfast, often eaten in the 
living room, have created a demand for a tasty cereal 
to be served without the trouble of cooking. A morbid 
craving for variety and the too often poor quality of the 
cooked cereal served in boarding houses and hotels has 
also favored the use of the various ''flakes," which make 
such admirable conveyors of cream and which crackle 
so delightfully. 

There is httle cause for alarm as to the introduction 
of poisonous substances into these products. It may 
be possible that in some cases impure chemicals have 
been used, but it is very doubtful if direct addition of 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 6/ 

poison has occurred. The chief danger is to be found 
in the ignorance of the public as to food values and the 
needs of the body. 

In order to furnish the heat and energy for a day's 
work or pleasure at least eight or ten ounces of carbo- 
hydrates and three ounces of fats are needed. These 
fluffy, flaky materials occupy space, but have little 
weight compared with more solid food. Therefore the 
consumer is apt to be deceived as to the quantity. 
Again, these foods are partly transformed or predi- 
gested, so that they pass quickly into circulation, giving 
a satisfied feeling, which soon passes, leaving a hunger 
liable to be quieted by nibbling at candy, chocolate, 
or crackers between meals. 

If deluged with rich cream and sugar the food 
value of the dish is greatly enhanced. The addition 
of the sugar, however, for a breakfast dish is not to 
be recommended. Fermentations inimical to the best 
assimilation of food are Ukely to arise. 

It is interesting to note that in the recent discussion 
of pure food legislation the clause requiring the weight 
to be put on the package failed of enactment. That 
would have affected the cereal foods, for when many 
housewives realize that they pay twenty-five cents a 
pound for some fancy name, but for no more food 
value than they can obtain for two and a half or three 
cents, then they will count the cost of gas and time 
to see if they can afford the difference. 

Full analyses and descriptions of the important 
brands have been made by the states of Wyoming, 
Maine, and Connecticut, for instance. From the pub- 
lished facts the following comparison is compiled : 



68 



FOOD MATERIALS 



Bulletin No. 84, Maine Experiment Station, 1902, 
Orono, Me. 

cereal breakfast foods 



Market Price 



Nichols Snow White Samp 

Quaker Oats 

Nichols Pearl Hominy . 

Quaker Rolled White Oats 

Pettijohn's Breakfast Food 

Cream of Wheat . 

Malt Breakfast Food . 

Wheatena 

Grape-Nuts . 

Shredded Whole Wheat 

Force .... 

Flaked Rice . 

Granose Flakes 

Granula 



Cost 

per pound 

Cents 

2.1 

6.3 

7.0 



9.4 
10.7 
14.6 
15.0 
16.5 
18.2 
22.4 
27.2 



For ten cents one buys of the last named 6j'j heat 
units of food value, and of the first 8,200 heat units — 
enough for nearly three days' ration. The cost of gas 
for cooking is, however, to be taken into account. 

TJie truth about breakfast foods is that the house- 
wife saves time and trouble at considerable cost to her 
pocket. 

The Bulletin says : " Of the fifty brands recently 
collected only twenty-one are found in the list of three 
years ago. There seems to be a tendency on the part 
of manufacturers to substitute new and attractive names 
for a product that has been before the public for some 
time." 

This is caused in part by the deterioration which 



AMD THEIR ADULTERATIONS 69 

the manufacturers permit, either by the packages be- 
coming stale and even wormy or by less care in pro- 
duction. During the time of introduction the new 
name means fresh material. 

Rolled oats, and some other grains, are softened by 
steaming raw, crushed by rolls, and then dried so as 
to keep. ■ The starch is then more soluble. Sometimes 
the heat is dry heat, either at first or after steaming, 
and then there is a dextrinizing and browning, like the 
crust of bread. 

The malted foods are mixed with barley and partly 
predigested. 

These prepared cereals have their place, but the 
family provider, not the manufacturer, should decide 
what that place shall be in each case. 

The lazy habit of obtaining information (.?) from the 
label, instead of developing common sense and real 
knowledge, is responsible for most of these drains on 
the pocket. 

As stated before, it is within the power of every 
housewife to know, and the bureau of information 
should find a place in every club. 

As to the loss in food value by this predigestion of 
the prepared foods the last word has not been said. 
Cooking doubtless changes the relations of the various 
ingredients, but the waste within the body of the mushy 
cereals may cause some to be more than double the 
value of others. 

The steam cooking either does not develop or dis- 
sipates the flavor, so that one tires of the mush or adds 
sugar — a dietetic sin — and cream and fruits. In this 



yO FOOD MATERIALS 

respect the flaked and toasted varieties are more 
''tasty," if not more digestible, as they may well prove, 
however, if thoroughly masticated. 

BARLEY 

Barley belongs to the genus Hoj'deum. It is prob- 
ably a native of Northern or Central Asia, but it has a 
remarkable power of adapting itself to a great range 
of temperature, and has a wider distribution than wheat 
or oats. On the eastern continent its culture extends 
from 70° north latitude to 42° south, and in Amer- 
ica from 62° north to 20° south. Its use as an article 
of food is coeval with the history of man. It yields a 
greater produce per acre than any other grain except 
rice. It was largely cultivated by the Romans, and 
used chiefly as food for horses. In England, in the 
middle of the seventeenth century, it was commonly 
used as the food of the people because it grew readily 
in any part of the kingdom. Since improved means 
of transportation have brought all countries within a 
few days of each other, wheat is carried to lands in 
which it will not thrive, and people no longer need to 
live on the produce of their own soil. Barley has less 
starch and more cellulose, mineral matter, and fat than 
rice. It is largely used for the manufacture of beer, 
being better suited for it than the other grains. Its 
flavor should commend it to the intelligent consumer 
for more varied use. 

RICE 

Perhaps no other food stuff has been so misrepre- 
sented as rice. On the one hand, it is often stated in 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS /I 

print and in conversation that rice is " only starch and 
has no nutritive value." On the other hand, the Chi- 
nese and Japanese and other East Indian people are 
said to ''live on rice." It has been represented, in the 
case of the recent war, that the Japanese soldiers went 
through this strenuous campaign on rice. 

This only illustrates the need of universal education 
in the matter of food values. Under the direction of 
Prof. W. O. At water this subject was thoroughly in- 
vestigated by the United States government at the 
time of the Chicago Exposition with reference to sev- 
eral groups quartered in the Midway, especially in the 
case of the Java village. Other studies of the dietary 
habits of so-called rice-eating people have been made 
on the spot with the same general result, namely, that 
rice is found to take the place of bread, potatoes, and 
vegetables — in a word, furnishes the pound of starch 
a day which other nations take in a variety of forms. 

Since rice contains only a small proportion of either 
fat or nitrogenous compounds, it cannot form the sole 
food of human beings for any length of time, but the 
great bulk of cooked rice has misled many observers, 
and caused them to overlook the concentrated nitrog- 
enous food which always accompanies it. For instance, 
the Java village people brought with them potted fish 
roe to furnish in large degree the needed nitrogen. 
The Chinese in San Francisco import from China dried 
ducks' livers and hard-boiled ducks' eggs. All the 
peoples who have been investigated use meats, chicken, 
ducks, fish, or some other form of proteid supply. 
They do not use this in the wasteful excess in which 



*J2 FOOD MATERIALS 

American communities usually revel, but in a sufficient 
quantity, as a rule. It is the fat which is more often 
lacking in their diet. 

Rice is admirably adapted to serve as a conveyor 
of fat and proteid, in the form of cheese, for instance. 

Different varieties show differing food values. The 
Japanese variety is richer in nitrogen substances. 

The rice of commerce is the product of the grass 
Oryza sativa, probably a native of the East Indies, but 
cultivated in all portions of tropical and subtropical 
regions. It forms the principal food of nearly one- 
third of the human race, and enters largely into the 
diet of all civilized nations. It has been known in 
China for 5,000 years. The outer coat of woody fiber 
does not adhere closely and is easily removed, so that, 
as sent to market, the shelled grain is the inner or 
starch kernel. The wild rice of North America be- 
longs to another genus, Zinania aqiiatica. It grows 
in the north temperate regions, and deserves more no- 
tice than it has hitherto received. Rice flour is now 
largely used in the adulteration of many finely ground 
foods and of condiments. 

" History tells us that the first rice grown in this 
country was introduced in 1695 by the captain of a 
brig from Madagascar, who gave some seed to Governor 
Smith and his friends to experiment with, and the re- 
sult has been an important industry. The rices which 
chance introduction had brought in were looked upon 
as the finest in quality in the world and were exported 
to Europe.; but with the call for a whiter and more 
polished product than the hand-threshed rice of plan- 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 73 

tation days came machine-polished rice, and the center 
of the rice industry was transferred to Louisiana and 
Texas by the discovery of artesian wells in those states. 

**The machine-polished rice that we buy in this 
country today is, as every one knows, a truly beautiful 
thing to look at, but as tasteless as the paste that a 
paper hanger brushes on his rolls of wall paper. The 
leather rollers of the machine not only rub off all the 
fine outer layer of nutritious matter, and with it the part 
that gives flavor to the kernels, but they often break 
the long, slender grains that characterize the famous 
Carolina golden rice. This breakage is so great that the 
Louisiana growers begged for assistance, and the new 
Office of Plant Introduction sent Dr. S. A. Knapp to 
Japan in search of a short-kerneled variety that would 
not break in the milling process. Today Dr. Knapp 
declares that one-half of all the rice grown in Louisiana 
and Texas is the Kiushu rice that had its origin in the 
introduction made in 1899. 

'' This new rice has reduced . the breakage from 
forty to ten per cent, and has at the same time brought 
into culture a more productive rice. It has not done 
away with the pernicious practice of polishing, but an 
interest in the unpolished rice has lately been aroused 
that, it is hoped, will lead to the abandonment of a 
practice which robs the buyer of nearly all of the 
flavoring matter of the rice and leaves only the starchy 
portion. It is a disgrace that the most intelligent na- 
tion in the world should be so ignorant of the food 
value of the crop on which more people live than on 
any other, that they should insist on having their rice 



74 FOOD MATERIALS 

made as shiny as polished glass beads, although in so 
doing they are throwing away the best part of it. No 
rice-eating people treat their rice as we do, and it is to 
be hoped that the small markets that have been started 
for the unpolished rice will lead to a general propaganda 
in its favor." ^ 

OATS 

Oatmeal is prepared from two species, Avena sativa 
and Avena orientalis, which belong to the same natural 
order as wheat. This grain grows best in a cool, moist 
climate. Its native country is not known with cer- 
tainty. There is evidence that the plant was known in 
Britain in 1296, and mention is made of the use of oat- 
meal porridge as an article of food in 1596. In 1698 
the consumption of oatmeal was second only to barley, 
but wheat has gradually taken its place in Southern 
England. By kiln-drying and removing the husk, 
groats or grits are obtained, which, when ground, yield 
oatmeal. The husk is not as completely removed as in 
the case of rice, and the meal is not as white as wheat 
meal. Although it contains a large proportion of nitrog- 
enous matter, it is not in the form of the tenacious 
gluten of wheat ; hence it will not make light or porous 
bread. Oatmeal is not as easily digested as wheat flour, 
and as a staple article of diet it is best suited to persons 
who are much in the open air ; but a portion of the 
morning meal may advantageously be of this very 
nutritious grain. Blyth says that in England it is 
sometimes adulterated with barley meal. 

1 National Geographic Magazine, April, 1906. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 75 

MAIZE 

Maize (Zea mays) is remarkable in the order of 
grasses for the large size of its grains, and for the 
heads into which they are collected. It grows wild in 
the neighborhood of Mexico and in tropical America, 
and has now been introduced into every quarter of the 
globe, though it cannot be relied upon as a field crop 
in Great Britain. It has been said that what wheat is 
in Europe and rice in Asia, maize is in America. 

Maize, or Indian corn, as it is called in the United 
States, was not much consumed in England until the 
year of the potato famine, in 1846, when hominy 
was imported. Now millions of pounds are annually 
imported, chiefly from the Black and Mediterranean 
Sea borders. It is the leading cereal crop in the 
United States, four times as much as wheat being 
grown. It is an excellent food, easily digested and 
very nutritious. It is much used for the preparation 
of starch and for ''infants' foods." The starch is 
separated, and used in place of the more costly arrow- 
root. It is used in the manufacture of glucose, 
whisky, etc, and is fed to animals. 

RYE 

As a food rye possesses advantages which entitle it 
to a more careful cultivation and a wider use. It is less 
irritating to the digestive tract than wheat, and its flavor 
in combination with other grains would give a greater 
variety of breads. 

Rye {Secale ccrale) is nearly allied to wheat. The 
grains are smaller, and the flour not so white. It is 



76 FOOD MATERIALS 

very rich in nitrogenous substances. It grows a little 
farther north than wheat flourishes, and it thrives on a 
sandy soil too poor for any other grain. The bread 
made from rye flour is not so white and light as that 
made from wheat flour, but it is extensively used in 
Europe. The chief objection to its use is, that it is 
liable to be injured by a fungus, which produces an 
appearance like a spur, and which is called ergot. If 
these swelled grains are ground with the others, the 
flour is rendered unwholesome and even dangerous. 

WHEAT 

Wheat flour is prepared from the seeds of Triticiim 
sativum. The cultivation of wheat has superseded that 
of all other grains in climates where it will thrive (in 
the temperate zone as far as 60° north), but in the 
Middle Ages it was food for the wealthy classes only. 
Its use has been constantly on the increase, until it is 
now food for all classes. 

The reason seems to be, that bread made from it 
has no unpleasant or pronounced taste, so that the most 
fastidious palate does not become weary of it, and has 
a light, spongy, or porous character, quite peculiar to 
the wheat loaf. This adapts it for ready digestion, and 
is due to the peculiar nature of gluten, which in good 
flour is very elastic, and when the moistened dough is 
compressed causes it to spring back again to its place. 

The quality of the prepared flour is dependent upon 
the variety of wheat, the curing of the ripened grain, 
and the process of grinding. 

There are two kinds of wheat, the hard and the soft, 
which are referred to in the description of the grinding. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 7/ 

The curing of wheat is of the utmost importance, 
for if the grain is allowed to become damp and moldy 
a disagreeable flavor will be communicated to the flour. 

Among other quick methods of producing effects 
formerly gained only by time is that of aging flour 
by electricity. This bleaches the flours, and may 
permit of the admixture of a less white or lower grade 
flour. According to an advertisement in a recent issue 
of the Modern Miller, two-thirds of the flour manu- 
factured in the United States is so aged. Such flour 
appears to give a test for nitrites by the method used 
for water. 

For grinding two processes are used, which are 
known as high and low milling. In early times the 
kernels were brayed in a mortar, and later they were 
ground between stones. Low milling is a grinding be- 
tween two large, round stones, one or both revolving 
at so small a distance from each other as to crush the 
kernels, which are caught, as it were, by radial grooves 
in the stones. The wheat is often moistened in grind- 
ing, as it is thought to be more readily crushed. The 
heat developed is considerable, so that the tempera- 
ture of the flour as it comes from the stones is about 
120° F. The heating, and the grinding of a portion of 
the husk so fine that it sifts with the body of the grain, 
are the chief objections to this method. It is thought 
that the heat may change somewhat the character of 
the gluten, rendering it less tenacious, and so the flour 
less fit for the making of light bread. The action is 
purely a single crushing, and was used for the softer 
kinds of wheat. High milling, which is a succession of 



78 FOOD MATERIALS 

crackings, or of slight and partial crushings, alternating 
with sifting and sorting, is better adapted to hard 
wheat. There is also a mixture of the two processes 
called half high milling. 

In general, the modern commercial process may be 
described as follows : The wheat is first cleaned, then 
passes to a series of cylindrical rolls arranged at dis- 
tances so graded that when the wheat kernel passes 
between the first set it is merely cracked ; then the 
fragments drop between the next set and are again 
cracked, and so on, each set pulverizing a little finer 
than the preceding one. In this way the husk is no; 
bruised, only flattened out and loosened so that the 
dry starch granules drop out. The flour is not heated, 
since it is not subjected to friction, and since it falls 
through the cool air between each set of rolls. At each 
grinding the fine flour is removed by bolting, and finally 
all the different streams are blended to form different 
grades of flour. It is thought that the separation of 
the non-nutritious portion is also more complete, and 
hence that the flour is richer in the phosphates and ni- 
trogenous substances which are found in the layer of 
cells next the husk. Since there are no particles of 
bran in the high-milled flour it is whiter, and since it 
has been ground dry it has less moisture and will keep 
longer. 

Low milling yields about 80 per cent of flours of 
various grades, differing comparatively little from each 
other. High milHng yields about 75 per cent of mer- 
chantable flour, 72 per cent being straight grade or 
ordinary white flour. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 79 

Flour for household use will perhaps average 70 per 
cent of starch and dextrin, about 7 per cent each of 
sugar, mineral matter, and cellulose, i per cent of fat, 
and about 15 per cent of albuminous or nitrogenous 
substances. These constituents are so proportioned 
as to render wheat flour a highly nutritious food, 
capable by itself of sustaining life and health. 

"The durum wheat, from which the bread of the 
common people is made in Southern Europe and Russia, 
was almost an unknown thing on our grain markets 
until 1900; but today it is a living question in the 
milling centers of the Northwest. It is a wheat for 
the dry lands, where the ordinary kinds grow poorly 
or not at all, and it yields so much more per acre 
and is so much surer a crop that, even if it should not 
bring the highest prices, it will pay better than the 
less drouth resistant species which Western farmers 
have hitherto tried to grow on the dry farm lands 
of the Dakotas and Nebraska. 

" Custom still fights the innovation of a new flour, 
and there are people who think our bread is in danger 
of being deteriorated by the new introduction ; but 
they are not the well-informed who have tasted the 
full-flavored wheat breads of Spain or Italy, or who 
realize the great and growing future of macaroni as 
a food in this country. American-made macaroni, 
prepared with the best of the old American wheats, 
cannot be compared with the delicate products of a 
Gragnano factory. But with the culture of this durum 
wheat in America a change is coming, and the time 
may come when we shall ship macaroni to Italy instead 



80 FOOD MATERIALS 

of importing it at the rate of nearly ^2,000,000 a year. 
This innovation in the great wheat industry has been 
the result of the efforts of Mr. M. A. Carleton, who 
was sent to Russia as an agricultural explorer of the 
Office of Plant Introduction in 1898 and in 1900. 
The office has distributed thousands of bushels of 
the durum wheat varieties gathered by him from all the 
Mediterranean and South Russian countries where it is 
grown." ^ 

The importance of good flour can hardly be over- 
estimated, since upon good bread depends the health 
of the greater part of the human race in all temperate 
climates. 

This is not the place to discuss physiological ques- 
tions, or to take part in the war of words over graham, 
whole wheat, and fine flour. A discussion of the chem- 
ical side of the question will be found in the Thesis 
of Miss Charlotte A. Bragg, Technology Quarterly, 
vol. Ill, No. 3, 1890, from which the following extract 
is made : 

"The following tables give in a condensed form the 
results of the analyses of the two samples of wheat, and 
the products derived from them. A balance sheet was 
deduced therefrom. 

ST. LOUIS WINTER WHEAT 





Water 
Per cent 


Phosphorus 
Per cent 


Nitrogen 
Per cent 


Whole Wheat 


12.85 


0.262 


1.87 


Royal Patent 


13-37 


0.051 


1-39 



iQur Plant Immigrants, by David Fairchild, in National Geo- 
graphic Magazine, April, 1906. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 





Water 
Per cent 


Phosphorus 
Per cent 


Nitrogen 
Per cent 


Extra Fancy 


12.51 


O.I 00 


1.78 


Low Grade 


11.94 


O.I 00 


2.08 


Middlings 


II. 21 


0.225 


2.73 


Bran 


12.15 


0.828 


2.62 


MINNESOTA SPRING WHEAT 






Water 
Per cent 


Phosphorus 
Per cent 


Nitrogen 
Per cent 


Whole 


11.09 


0.230 


2.24 


Patent 


12.29 


0.050 


2.10 


Bakers' 


12.14 


0.091 


2.40 


Low Grade 


11.47 


0.192 


2.59 


Shorts 


11.27 


0.560 


2.78 


Bran 


11.23 


0.830 


2.55 



"The balance sheet defines the position of fine 
white flour very clearly. It shows that hard spring 
wheat gives a flour rich in nitrogen, 69.5 per cent of 
the total being saved in the three grades of flour. 
Winter wheat does not show quite as well ; not only 
is there more bran, but it is richer in nitrogen. Nev- 
ertheless, 62.2 per cent of the total nitrogen is saved. 
There is, therefore, no need to eat whole wheat bread 
in order to obtain a food rich in nitrogen. 

" Quite another story is told by a study of the 
proportion of phosphorus. The two varieties of wheat 
more nearly approach each other, but the spring wheat 
loses 79.6 per cent and the winter wheat 77.8 per cent 
of its total phosphorus. Here, then, is the bone of 
contention. The fine white flour is sadly deficient in 
phosphorus, but is the phosphorus which is contained 



S2 FOOD MATERIALS 

in the bran available for human food ? According to 
the latest experiments of Professors Voit and Riibner 
in Munich, it would seem that not only is the bran 
quite indigestible, but that by its irritating action it 
causes a loss of both nitrogen and carbohydrates, which 
would be available in its absence. 

" It would seem, therefore, fair to conclude that the 
bread made from fine flour, which is most tempting to 
eyes and palate, may, after all, be the one best adapted 
to the needs and conditions of the human system." 

Since the amount of gluten in a flour often has an 
interest for the housewife beyond that of nutritive value, 
a means of estimating it is often called for. 

Wiley (Agricultural Analysis, vol. Ill, p. 435) gives 
the following as a method for separating crude gluten 
from flour : Ten grams of flour (or one-half an ounce 
may be taken) are well moistened with a nearly equal 
weight of cool water (not over 60° F.), worked into a 
ball, and allowed to stand an hour. It is then kneaded 
in a stream of cold water until the starch and soluble 
matter is removed. It may be weighed moist as a 
rough comparison with other flours. 

BUCKWHEAT 

Buckwheat {Fagopyriint escidentiim) a native of Cen- 
tral Asia, does not belong to the grasses or cereals, but 
to the family Poiygonaccce, which includes rhubarb and 
dock. It grows as far north as ^2°, and thus stands 
next to barley. It matures very quickly — in one hun- 
dred days — and thrives on sandy soil. It is probably 
a native of Asia, and is largely grown in temperate 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 83 

countries. The seed, when stripped of its indigestible 
husk, which composes about 20 per cent of it, is rich 
in food material. It is often adulterated with cheaper 
flour. Of 107 samples examined by Winton in 1900, 
twenty-six contained wheat flour or middlings, nine 
maize flour, and nine contained them both. The pre- 
pared or self-raising buckwheats are usually mixtures 
of flours with baking powder. 

STARCHES, ETC. 

The prepared starches are purified, so that they 
contain little else than pure starch, and thus are not 
capable of sustaining Hfe by themselves. Starch may 
be derived from the cereal grains mentioned before, 
or from tubers or roots, as the potato, arrowroot, and 
manihot or yucca, which yields farina and tapioca, 
and from the stems of plants, as the sago palm. 

Cornstarch is much used in the United States as an 
article of diet. Farina is another name for a prepara- 
tion from the starch of maize or wheat, which now 
takes the place of the farina of manihot. 

Genuine macaroni, spaghetti, and vermicelli are made 
from wheat rich in gluten, and hence are nutritious, but 
not more rich than some other wheat preparations. 
Imitations are made from a less rich flour colored with 
saffron or other yellow coloring matter. 

Arrowroot is derived from plants of the genus 
Maranta, of the West India Islands and tropical 
America, the chief species being M. anmdinacea. 
The earliest recorded notice of the plant, the knowl- 
edge of which was obtained from South Am.erican 



84 



FOOD MATERIALS 



Indians, refers to the supposed virtue possessed by 
its roots as an antidote to poisoned arrows ; and it 
probably derives its name from this. Arrowroot was 
introduced into England about the beginning of the 
last century ; but its use has been largely superseded 
by that of cornstarch. 

infants' and invalids' foods ^ 



Imperial Granum . . . 
Ridge's Food .... 
Mothers' Food . . . 

Robinson's Barley . , 
Horlick's Malted Milk 
Lactated Food . . . 
Mellin's Food .... 
Nestle's Milk Food . . 
Reid and Carnrick's 
Baby Food .... 



Starch, 
fiber, 
etc. 



76.60 
72.01 
69.24 

78.66 
15.68 
47.72 



35-34 
34-54 



Maltose. 



49.00 
50-60 



Lactose. 



30.00 

8.96 

30.00 



Cane 
sugar. 



8.00 
Trace 

36.34 
8-9 



Wheat starch 
Wheat starch 
Corn and wheat 

starch 
Barley starch 

Wheat starch 
Soluble dextrin 
Wheat starch 



These foods for infants and invalids need attention 
on account of misrepresentations and the fact that physi- 
cians ignorantly prescribe, or at least do not forbid the 
use of, those which are far from what they profess to 
be. Some of them are simply starchy mixtures, more 
or less cooked, but not converted. 

The milk foods are dried milk, usually too low in 
fat, Nestle's Food being the only exception. 

MeUin's Food is the only food which does not con- 
tain starch, but this is too low in fat and should be 
given with cream. 



1 McGill, Canadian Department of Inland Revenue, Bulletin 59. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 



H 



Horlick's Malted Milk, Lactated Food, and Reid 
and Carnrick's Baby Food are mixtures of which the 
first has the least starch. 

BREAD AND CRACKERS 

Bread and crackers are so largely purchased that 
attention should be given to clean manufacture. A 
poster recently displayed showing a boy and girl hug- 
ging in their arms several loaves of unwrapped bread, 
some of which must fall to the ground before many 
steps, illustrates the careless handling of cooked foods. 
There is far more danger to health in this direction 
than in the possible use of alum or ammonia by a few 
bakers. 

The light weight loaf, " proofed ' ' to an excessive 
size, furnishes less nutrition than the buyer supposes. 

The cracker manufacturer needs to be watched as 
to quality of ingredients and care in handling, especially 
since his products are so largely used by children. 

Composition of the Principal Cereal Grains Tabulated by 

ViLLIER AND CoLLIN 1 



Wheat. 


Barley. 


Rye. 


13-65 


13-77 


15.06 


12.35 


II. 14 


11.52 


1-75 


2.16 


1-79 


1-45 


1.56 


0.95 


2.38 


1.70 


4.86 


64.08 


61.67 


62.00 


2.53 


5-31 


2.01 


1.81 


2.69 


1.81 



Oats. 



Water 

Nitrogenous substances 

Fat 

Sugar 

Gum and dextrin . . 

Starch 

Cellulose 

Ash 



12.37 
10.41 

5-32 
1.91 
1.79 
54.08 
II. 19 
3.02 



1 Leach, Food Inspection and Analysis, p. 212. 



86 



FOOD MATERIALS 





Rice. 


Corn. 


Millet. 


Buckwheat. 


Water 


I3.II 

7.85 
0.88 

I 16.52 

0.63 
I.OI 


13.12 
9.85 
4.62 
2.46 
3.38 

62.57 
2.49 

I-5I 


11.66 
9-25 
3-50 

? 65.95 

7.29 

2-35 


12.93 

10.30 

2.81 

55.81 


Nitrogenous substances . . 

Fat 

Sugar 

Gum and dextrin .... 
Starch 


Cellulose 

Ash 


16.43 

2.72 





CHAPTER VI 

SUGAR 

THE word sugar, probably of Sanskrit origin, is 
now used to designate a class of substances 
possessing a sweet taste and capable of breaking up 
into alcohol and carbon dioxide under the influence of 
ferments, such as yeast. 

Common sugar is called cane sugar, because it is 
obtained principally from the sugar cane, a tall grass, 
Sacchantni officiiiariim, a native of Southern Asia. 
It is the sweetest of all the sugars, and is technically 
called sucrose. It has been known from the earliest 
historic times. Some early writers spoke of it as 
"honey made from reeds without bees." 

According to Albertus Agnensis, as stated by 
Muspratt, in the time of the Crusades sweet honeyed 
canes were found in great quantity in the meadows 
near Tripoli in Syria, which reeds were called zticra. 
The plant was cultivated, and when ripe it was bruised 
in mortars, the strained juice set by in vessels "till 
concreted in the form of snow, or white salt ; this, when 
scraped, they mix with bread, or rub it in water and 
take it as pottage, and it is to them more wholesome 
and pleasing than the honey of bees." 

The sucrose of commerce is also obtained from the 
beet, the palm, and the maple tree, and from another 
grass, SorgJumi saccJiarattim. 

87 



S8 FOOD MATERIALS 

The sugar cane contains about i8 per cent of 
sugar. The canes are crushed and passed through 
powerful presses. The juice is boiled in vacuum pans 
with a little milk of Hme, added to neutralize the 
acids which the juice contains ; this forms a scum, 
which is taken off. After the boiling has concen- 
trated the juice sufficiently, it is run into a large 
vessel to crystallize. 

The mass of crystals formed is drained from the 
syrup, and is known as raw or muscovado sugar. 
The non-crystallized portion is known as molasses. 

This boiling down in vacuum pans has deprived 
the housewife of the old-fashioned West India or New 
Orleans molasses, with which she made such delicious 
gingerbread, which even ''mother" can no longer pre- 
pare. The acid molasses produced by the slow evapo- 
ration of the sugar cane juice in open pans is to be 
found only rarely and in small quantity on the market. 
In 1903-04 only 27,964,292 gallons of molasses were 
produced in the United States as against 37,000,000 
gallons in 1902-03. 

The grades of sugar also have changed very much. 
The dark brown sugars have almost disappeared from 
the market. This is owing to the improved methods 
of boiling. The granulated is of the same quality as 
loaf sugar, only the syrup is stirred while crystallizing, 
so that the crystals do not cohere. The light brown 
sugars are the next product, containing some molasses, 
and therefore they taste sweeter, since the flavor is 
more pronounced in the colored portion of the juice. 

If the granulated sugar is not quite freed from the 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 89 

syrup, it tastes more decidedly sweet than if it is per- 
fectly pure. That is, it has more the taste which we 
are accustomed to associate with sugar. 

It is often said that powdered sugar must be adul- 
terated, because it does not sweeten as much as loaf 
sugar ; but such is not the case, and some explanation 
must be sought. The reason seems to be twofold : 
first, a spoonful of powdered sugar does not weigh as 
much as a spoonful of granulated ; second, since sweet- 
ness is a physical property, the finely divided condition 
of the sugar has something to do with it. The coarser 
grains seem to excite in the nerves of taste a stronger 
vibration, so to speak, in dissolving than do the fine 
particles. To prove this, equal weights of loaf, of gran- 
ulated of different degrees of fineness, of powdered, 
and of coffee-crushed sugar were dissolved in equal 
volumes of water and then tested by various persons, 
the tumblers containing the solutions being numbered, 
so that the taster was an unbiased judge. Some pure 
honey was added to the list, and the results confirmed 
the previous suspicions that the taste was not due to the 
chemical purity of the substance. In every case the 
coffee sugar was pronounced the sweetest, and that of 
the solution of honey the least sweet. As to the solu- 
tions of the other sugars, which were all pure sucrose, 
judgments varied, showing that the sensation of sweet- 
ness is not owing solely to the presence of a certain 
amount of sucrose. 

That beet root contained a sugar identical with that 
obtained from the sugar cane was first made known 
by Margraf in 1747. But the beet was not cultivated 



90 FOOD MATERIALS 

for the purpose to any extent until the middle of the 
last century. Under the protection of Napoleon I., the 
industry gradually gained ground. A prize of a mil- 
lion francs was offered for the successful manufacture 
of sugar from plants of home growth. As late as 1 860 
the fate of beet sugar was doubtful, since the disagree- 
able flavor of the molasses still clung to the crystallized 
sugar. But applied science has overcome all the diffi- 
culties. The purest loaf sugar is now made from beets, 
and there is produced one and one-half times as much 
beet sugar as cane sugar. The total amount of beet 
sugar produced in 1840 was 50,000 long tons. The 
total amount of cane sugar produced in 1840 was 
1,100,000 long tons. The ^otal amount of beet sugar 
produced in 1905 was 6,990,000 long tons. The total 
amount of cane sugar produced in 1905 was 4,908,000 
long tons. 

The culture of the beet has spread throughout 
Germany and Russia. It has been tried in England, 
Ireland, and the Northern United States, and is prov- 
ing a source of profit in many latitudes where the 
sugar cane will not thrive. Beets contain up to 10 or 
12 per cent of sugar. In Belgium and France they 
extract about 7 per cent, and in Germany 8 or 9 
per cent. The process of manufacture differs little 
from that of cane sugar. The molasses from beet 
sugar is mostly sent to the distillery, as it has a very 
disagreeable taste. 

In parts of the United States and in Canada sugar 
is made from the sap of the maple, Acer saccJiarmuni, 
and other allied species. The sugar is cane sugar, or 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 9 1 

sucrose, and the accompanying substances in the sap 
give an agreeable flavor quite peculiar to maple sugar. 
Several million pounds are annually produced. 

The cultivation of the Chinese sugar grass, or sugar 
millet {Sorghum saccharatitm), has been attempted in 
the United States, with some success. It seems to be 
suited to a warm temperate zone, and thus is inter- 
mediate between the northern maple and beet and the 
tropical sugar cane. It is used largely for fodder, 
however. 

The term sugar, as used today, is a very general one 
covering a wide range of substances, the number of 
which is constantly growing by virtue of chemical 
research. 

The housewife has to do with two of the great 
groups : 

1. The monosaccharids {C^H^^O^), or glucoses. 
At least fifteen are named, to which belong grape 
sugar (dextrose), crystal] izable ; fruit sugar (levulose), 
non-cry stallizable ; and invert sugar, a mixture of the 
two (made from the sucroses by boiling with acid). 

2. The disaccharids {C^^H^fi^^), or sucroses. To 
this class belong cane sugar, or sucrose, beet sugar, 
maple sugar, malt sugar (maltose), and milk sugar, or 
lactose. 

The sugars are often divided into reducing (those 
which reduce copper from copper sulphate), maltose, 
lactose, invert sugar, dextrose, levulose ; and nonreduc- 
ing, as cane sugar, beet sugar, maple sugar. 

Starch is a polysaccharid, along with cellulose, dex- 
trin, glycogen, and pectin. It can be considered as 



92 FOOD MATERIALS 

an aggregation of lOO groups derived from dextrose, 
CgHj20g (lOO CgHiQOg), by the removal of water from 
each during plant growth. These water molecules may 
be replaced and sugar again formed by treating with 
acid (artificial or unnatural) or by the action of an 
enzyme, as diastase, the natural ferment found in barley 
in abundance. 

In the acid hydrolysis the starch breaks up grad- 
ually into maltose, a dextrin, and dextrose. In the 
enzyme treatment only the first two result as a rule. 

Much confusion is caused by the loose way in which 
the term ''glucose" is commonly used. Formerly it 
was the designation of all the manufactured products, 
whether solid or viscous, but of late the term " starch 
sugar," or dextrose, covers the solid sugars and glucose 
means the syrup form, from the Greek glnkus, meaning 
sweet. 

While all kinds of starch, and even cellulose, will 
yield starch sugar when treated (hydrolyzed) with acid, 
corn is the chief source. The grain is soaked in huge 
vats, holding some 2,500 bushels, in warm water for 
several days. Sulphur dioxide is added to sterilize 
and to soften the hulls. The grain is then ground, and 
the starch is washed through bolting cloth sieves and 
allowed to settle. If it is desired to save the germ, 
a first coarse grinding allows it to float away and a 
second finer grinding sets free the starch grains. 

The collected starch, mixed with water to a creamy 
consistency, is run into copper boilers with about six 
pounds of hydrochloric acid to each 10,000 pounds of 
starch. It is heated under pressure of some thirty 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 93 

pounds and drawn off, decolorized, and refined in much 
the same manner as the juice of the sugar cane. 

The demand for starch sugar for candies and jellies, 
and of glucose for syrups, has caused an enormous 
production in this country, irrespective of its use in 
beers. 

Confectionery is usually preferred in a soft or 
amorphous condition ; rock candy or crystallized sugar 
is rarely called for. It is for this reason that sugar for 
making candy is inverted, or changed into reducing 
sugar (mixture of dextrose, or grape sugar, and levu- 
lose or fruit sugar), by boiling with some acid, usually 
cream of tartar or tartaric acid. 

The ''fondant" of chocolate creams and bonbons 
may be made in this way. Gums and starch pastes, 
even clay, may be used to dilute the crystals of sugar 
and keep the mass agreeably soft, but commercial glu- 
cose is easier to work, healthful, cheap, and pure, 
therefore is largely used in modern candy making. 
The pastes and cheap gum drops are made of starch, 
paste, and glucose. Marshmallows have gelatin added. 

It requires two and one-half times as much glucose 
as cane sugar to sweeten the same volume of water. 
This may partly explain the increasing pounds of candy 
consumed. 

Grape sugar is present in the sacs of flowers, and 
is the source of honey. It can be readily obtained from 
grapes by expressing the juice, and after neutralization 
of the acids the syrup may be refined and crystallized 
as in the case of beet sugar, but it crystallizes with 
difficulty and is apt to take on water and become moist. 



94 



FOOD MATERIALS 



It is accompanied by the non-cry stallizable sugar, lev- 
ulose. Grape sugar made from grapes is too costly 
for ordinary use. In jellies and preserved fruits a 
large portion of the cane sugar, or sucrose, is changed 
into glucose during the heating with the acid juice 
of the fruit. 

The following table ^ shows the proportion of sugars 
and acid in various fruits : 



Cane sugar. 



Reducing 
sugar. 



Apricots .... 
Pineapples . . . 
English cherries 
Lemons .... 

Figs 

Strawberries . . 
Raspberries . . 
Gooseberries . . 
Oranges .... 
Peaches (green) . 
Pears (Madeleine) 
Apples .... 
Apples .... 

Prunes 

Grapes (hothouse) 
Grapes (green) . 



6.04 

[1-33 
0.00 
0.41 
0.00 

(^■33 
2.01 
0.00 
4.22 
0.92 
0.36 
5.28 
2.19 

5-24 
0.00 
0.00 



2.74 

1.98 

10.00 

1.06 

"•55 
4.98 
5.22 
6.40 
4-36 
1.07 
8.42 
8.72 
545 
2-43 

17.26 
1.60 



1.864 

0-547 
0.661 
4.706 
0.057 

0-550 
1.380 

1-574 
0.448 
3.900 
0.1 15 
1. 148 
0-633 
1.288 

0-345 
2.485 



Not only may sucrose be converted, but all woody 
fiber or cellulose can be acted upon by acids so as to 
form glucose ; hence any woody substance, as sawdust, 
cotton, etc, can be converted into glucose ; but this 
is not done for the purpose of sugar manufacture, 
since corn meal is much more available. Such waste 
product may be used for spirits. 

1 Buignet (Ann. Chim. Phys., 59, p. 233), taken from Leach, p. 462. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 95 

Milk sugar, or lactose (C^^U^fi^^ H2O), is prepared 
from skim milk, a waste product of the dairies. The 
sugar of milk is a valuable product for use in the prepa- 
ration of modified milk for infants ; in medicine it is of 
importance as an excipient, or vehicle for active remedies ; 
and in certain diseases it is a valuable nutrient. 

There is little probability that the use of milk sugar 
will ever become as universal as that of the other forms 
of sugar, for the price, from twenty to forty cents a 
pound, is prohibitive. 

The chief adulterants to be looked for in milk sugar 
are grape sugar and cane sugar. 

HONEY 

The United States produces the most honey, the 
annual production as reported in 1900 being 61,196,160 
pounds. 

It is said, especially by English analysts, that much 
American honey is entirely artificial, that the comb is 
made of paraffin and filled with glucose syrup. Two 
simple tests will show whether this is the case. Normal 
honey, being collected by the bees from flowers, will 
contain many pollen grains. The absence of these is 
a suspicious circumstance. Beeswax is blackened by 
warm sulphuric acid, while paraffin is not affected. 

The most common adulterants of honey are cane 
sugar and commercial glucose. Gelatin is also found. 
Sometimes bees are fed on cane sugar or glucose, which 
is placed near the hives. In such a case they may 
supply the adulterants. 

The presence of the comb in honey is by no means 



96 FOOD MATERIALS 

a proof of genuineness. In at least one sample the 
Massachusetts State Board of Health found pieces of 
artificial comb and a dead bee in a mixture of glucose 
and cane sugar. 

In the Bulletin of the New Hampshire Board for 
July, 1906, a table is given showing that out of thirteen 
samples examined, only seven were of legal quality. 

ADULTERATION 

The adulteration of sugar may be considered under 
three heads. First, the addition of insoluble substances, 
such as marble dust, which is sometimes found adver- 
tised among the supplies of confectioners. It is said 
that sand used to be added. Second, the foreign sub- 
stances left in from the process of manufacture, such 
as ultramarine, to give the requisite blue color. If tin 
were ever found in sugar, it would be in this list. 
Third, and most frequent at present, is the addition 
of glucose, or corn sugar, which is much cheaper, but 
is less sweet, partly on account of its lesser solubihty 
in water. One quart of water dissolves three pounds 
of cane sugar, but only one or one and a half pounds of 
grape sugar. 

Sugar may be so manipulated in refining as to be 
white and crystalline, and yet contain quite a percent- 
age of moisture and syrup. Such sugar cakes together 
on standing. The presence of this moisture may be 
regarded as an adulteration. 

The adulteration of the granulated and powdered 
sugars, at least those sold in the Eastern States, is 
not as extensive as has been supposed. Of the sam- 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 97 

pies examined by the writer in 1879, not one of 
seventy-three samples from Massachusetts, not one 
of five from New York, and only one of twelve 
from Chicago was adulterated. 

Today (1906) granulated sugar is probably the 
purest food product on the market. 

Syrups, on the contrary, are very liable to be not 
what they seem. Dr. Kedzie, of Michigan, in 1879 
found only one out of twenty-one genuine. 

The Kansas Board of Health, in its Bulletin for 
June, 1906, states the percentage of adulteration in 
maple sugar and syrup as 95.8. 

The July Bulletin from New Hampshire, the home 
of the sugar maple, gives only twenty-one samples of 
legal quality out of forty-one examined. 

The usual adulterants of maple syrup are golden or 
drip syrup, commercial glucose, molasses, and refined 
sugar. 

The ordinary table syrup is chiefly glucose or corn 
syrup. 

CANDY 

The enormous extension of the candy trade demands 
attention both from the hygienic and the economic point 
of view. Some years ago Professor Simon N. Patten 
warned us that we were being eliminated on a sugar 
diet — women particularly. With the best granulated 
sugar at say six cents a pound, and commercial glucose 
at about half that price, the sale of candies at forty to 
eighty cents means large profits, which are to a great 
extent used up in fancy boxes, high rents, and expert 



gS FOOD MATERIALS 

service, so that even at fifteen cents a pound it is pos- 
sible to sell candies v^here other expenses are low. 
A large part of the tons of candy purchased by the 
young people of our towns is glucose more or less 
bleached by bisulphite of soda. Commercial glucose 
of the unrefined sort as it comes from the factory to 
be used, in beer, for instance, has a yellow cast, and 
would not sell so readily ; hence the bleaching. Glu- 
cose itself is a good food, but the sulphites are not 
exactly wholesome. 

The fancy for brilliant colors in food finds full play 
in candies. Some 200 coloring substances are named 
in the National Confectioners' Association list, of which 
about one-third are recognized as harmful. Mineral 
colors, such as lead chromate (yellow), formerly fre- 
quent, are rarely seen. Coal tar dyes, from their 
intense coloring power, are generally used. The 
quantity taken at any one time is almost infinitesimal. 

Cheap candies are sometimes stuffed with starch, 
paste, and paraffin, and the fats used are of doubtful 
sources. ''Brandy drops" containing fusel oil and 
alcohol ought to be driven from the market. 

In 1900 thirty-one out of seventy-eight samples of 
confectionery examined in Massachusetts were adul- 
terated. Chocolate brandy drops gave in some cases 
more than 4 per cent of alcohol. 

The Inland Revenue Department, Ottawa, Canada, 
reports the following results of an examination of highly 
colored confectionery, samples having been collected 
during two months : Out of fifty-six samples examined 
thirty-four contained two colors, twenty contained three 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 99 

colors, and two contained four colors. In but one sam- 
ple was the presence of arsenic shown, and that in such 
minute quantity as to be completely harmless. 

USES OF SUGAR 

In Europe it was used only in medicine until about 
the fifteenth century, and it was not produced in large 
quantities till about 1800. Only within a few genera- 
tions has sugar been used as a food, and produced in 
sufficient quantities to bring the price within the reach 
of all classes of people. The consumption of sugar is 
everywhere increasing. In 1899 ^he total consumption 
was from seven to eight million tons. In 1904 it was 
from eleven to twelve million. In the United States 
alone it was nearly three million, having increased from 
eight pounds a head in 1825 to 75.3 pounds in 1904. 

Until recently, taking the world as a whole, it might 
be said that sugar was used as a condiment rather than 
as a food, but at present it seems a very important 
article of diet, and should be so considered. It would 
seem that in the north it is taking the place of the 
starchy foods that sometimes can be obtained only with 
great difficulty. It is known that the consumption of 
sugar is large among American farmers and lumbermen. 
In Switzerland loaf sugar and very sweet chocolate are 
important elements in the outfits of mountain climbers, 
and on all polar expeditions sugar is considered an 
essential. Undoubtedly it is an invaluable as well as 
an agreeable food for these dwellers in the open air. 

Professor Pfliiger is quoted as saying that without 
doubt the sugar in the blood is heavily drawn on during 

LOfC. 



100 FOOD MATERIALS 

violent exercise ; hence the longing for it in a form 
that can be readily assimilated. 

In Mrs. Abel's Bulletin, ''Sugar as Food,"^ may be 
found exceedingly interesting accounts of experiments 
by Mosso and Dr. Schumberg in lessening fatigue by 
means of cane sugar. A short quotation is in place 
here : " In effect Dr. Schumberg says, ' The practical 
conclusion to be drawn is that sugar in small doses is 
well adapted to help men to perform extraordinary mus- 
cular labor.' He advises practical tests of his results 
on a large scale, in which small amounts of sugar in 
some refreshing drink, as lemonade, will be given to 
men fifteen or twenty minutes before they begin a 
piece of very hard work or at the first signs of exhaus- 
tion. If the sugar is to be taken in solid form he 
recommends chocolate as the best medium. The appli- 
cation of these results to the food of soldiers who may 
be called upon for extraordinary exertion in marching 
or fighting is very evident." ^ 

In warm countries, where little fat is eaten, sugar 
as it is found in fruits forms a large portion of the food. 
It is said that in India the workmen must have each 
day a large amount of food that is well seasoned with 
sugar.^ In all tropical lands the natives live largely on 
dates, figs, and other fruits that have a high percentage 
of sugar. 

The growing opinion seems to be in favor of its 
moderate use. It is true that if the stomach is not 
able to digest it at once it is liable to change into lactic 
acid instead of being absorbed into the system. This 

1 Farmers' Bulletin No. 93. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS lOI 

only shows that sugar is not suitable for that individual 
at that time. The very general craving for sweets is 
undoubtedly founded on a law of demand of the system. 
Hence a moderate use of it by children is not to be 
rashly condemned. Like all other foods, sugar may 
be abused. That it plays a part as a heat-giving food 
is indicated by the fact that it is not craved to so great 
an extent in summer as in winter. 



CHAPTER Vli 

NUTS 

ONE class of food material worthy of further study 
from various standpoints has recently come into 
prominence. *'Nuts as Food " ^ is the title of one of the 
excellent Farmers' Bulletins. 

Certain facts about these products have been known 
without attaching due significance to them. 

The plebeian peanut has been rescued from the 
upper gallery, and as ''butter" has found its way to 
the most exclusive afternoon tea, as well as to the 
vegetarian bill of fare, and as ''brittle" is a favorite 
candy. The pine nut, supposed to be a last resort of 
the starving Indian, is now imported and deprived 
of its content of turpentine for the delicate feast of 
devotees of uncooked foods. 

Nut cakes, nut salads, nut ice cream, etc, all show 
the new direction in which public taste is tending. 

These nuts are quite different from the most promi- 
nent variety of forty years ago, which was the cocoanut.. 
This is today less frequently seen in our markets, being 
prepared nearer the place of production. Pecans are, 
for the time, the most abundant, and are worthy of the 
favor given them. 

The composition of nuts is given as follows : 

1 Maine Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 54. 
102 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 



103 



Edible Portion. 



Brazil nut 

Pignolia 

Filbert 

Hickory nut 

English walnut (California 

bijou) 

Pecan 

Almond (California) . . . 
Peanut 

Roasted 

Chestnut (average) .... 



Per 

cent. 

5-3 
6.4 

37 

2-5 
2.7 
4.8 

1.6 

42.7 



Per 
cent. 

17.0 

33-9 

15.6 
154 

18.4 

9.6 

21.0 

30-5 
6.5 



Per 
cent. 

66.8 

494 

65-3 
67.4 

64.4 

70.5 
54-9 
49.2 

^■3 



Per 

cent. 

7.0 

6.9 

13.0 

II.4 

13.0 

15-3 
17-3 
16.2 

43-1 



Per 
pound. 

3'329 
2,842 

3432 

3495 

3.305 
3,566 

3,030 
2>955 
3'i77 
1,188 



Per 

cent. 

49.6 



52.1 
62.2 



73-1 
46.3 
45.0 
Av. 
28.0 
16.0 



Cents. 
12 

15 

9 

15 
15 
15 

7-3- 
14.6 
8.4 



A glance at this table will show the high food value 
of nuts, and will explain why they may take the place of 
meat in the dietary. 

Since nuts belong to the class of foods that are 
put up to keep, that is, with little water, they may be 
transported and used months after ripening. 

They are not as yet liable to adulteration, and their 
quality is evident to the experienced buyer. 

The United States furnishes a great variety of nuts, 
and the few not grown here are imported in quantity, 
Brazil nuts and filberts forming the bulk of the latter 
class. 

The Brazil, or Para, nut grows on a large tree found 
in the Amazon forests {Bertholletia excelsd). It is 
sometimes incorrectly called castanea nut. 

The filbert, or hazel nut {Cory Ins tubulosa L.) is 



104 FOOD MATERIALS 

more used in Europe than in America, both for the 
table and for oil, of which it contains a surprising 
amount for so dry a nut. 

Pignolias, the seeds of pine, are increasing in favor, 
particularly the Egyptian varieties, although several 
excellent varieties of pine nuts are grown in the 
southwest. 

The pecan is a tree native to the United States 
(Hicoria pecan), growing from Iowa to Texas, where 
the greater proportion is raised. Its thin shell, being 
easily removed, makes it a great favorite. 

The English walnut (J?igla?is regia L.) is an Asiatic 
tree introduced into England in the middle of the 
sixteenth century. It is now most successfully grown 
in California, the 1898 crop being estimated at eight 
million pounds. The black walnut and butternut are 
seldom found on the market, although both furnish 
edible nuts. 

The chestnut {Castanea sativa Mill.) is a well-bal- 
anced food material, and the tree grows in most temper- 
ate lands. This nut furnishes a staple article of diet 
for the poorer classes along the Mediterranean, being 
made into puddings, cakes, and bread. Flour or meal 
made from it might easily replace many other meals in 
the diet. 

The cocoanut palm {Cocos nucifera L.) furnishes 
food, oil, fiber, and adulterating material, especially for 
ground spices. Various preparations of the oil have 
been introduced as lard substitutes. 

The pistachio tree {Pistacia vera Z.) is said to have 
been cultivated in Egypt in the time of Joseph, and is 
now found mostly along the borders of the Mediter- 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS IO5 

ranean. Other nuts, such as almonds, are sometimes 
dyed with coal tar dyes to imitate pistachios. 

The almond is not a nut, properly speaking, but a 
drupe, or stone. The almond tree {Pjinms amygdalus 
Stokes) is supposed to be a native of Turkestan and 
closely related to the peach. It is now naturalized in 
California. The table variety is the sweet or paper- 
shell. Variety amara furnishes the oil of bitter 
almonds. Other stones are not commonly substituted. 
The peanut {Arachis hypogcEa L.) is probably a na- 
tive of Brazil, but is grown in nearly all temperate and 
subtropic regions. It is not a true nut, but grows in 
a pod on vines, and is one of a small group of legumes 
which bend the flower stalk until the young fruit is 
buried in the soil to ripen there. The American crop 
is four million bushels or more, about one-seventh of 
the world's product. In Europe the oil is used instead 
of olive oil for a salad oil, and makes an excellent 
substitute. 

The olive {0/ea EiiropcEa) has been grown in Cali- 
fornia only from the time of the early Mission fathers, 
but has attained the proportions of a profitable industry. 
Some seventy varieties are grown in the State. Olives 
are sometimes partly dried before crushing in the old- 
fashioned stone mills for the extraction of the oil. The 
watery product is allowed to stand for perhaps a month 
and the clear oil is decanted. This process is claimed 
to give a delicacy of flavor which the filtered oils lack. 
The green olives gave on analysis 13 per cent of fat, 
while the ripe fruit gave 25.5. The oil may be eaten 
with bread instead of butter. 

Today "salad oil" is derived from many sources 



I06 FOOD MATERIALS 

besides the olive. Cotton seed oil and corn oil are 
most frequently used, but other seed oils and peanut oil 
are found in European samples. The label in more or 
less correct Italian does not prove the contents of a 
bottle to have come from the sunny land. At pres- 
ent a great deal of the salad oil has never crossed the 
seas, but is known to the dealers for what it is, cotton 
seed oil. The oil is pressed out from the cotton seeds 
by powerful presses and makes a very clear, sweet oil, 
just as wholesome, for aught any one knows, as the 
oil pressed from the olive, and for home use it is cer- 
tainly much cheaper. The trouble with the sale of it is, 
like that of oleomargarine, that it is sold under false 
pretences and for an exorbitant price. 

In America the cereals are grown so freely and are 
prepared by machinery so easily that nuts cannot com- 
pete in price ; but there are compensations, since nuts 
may be used without cooking, and also since the fat 
they contain makes them a more valuable food. 

In comparing the cost of nuts with the cost of 
cereals, the difference in food values must not be lost 
sight of. Cereals are largely starch. Nuts in general 
are rich in fat, and therefore pound for pound have 
approximately twice the food value. The content in 
proteid of nuts is also higher as a rule than in cereals, 
and in the peanut more than twice as much. The 
proteid of nuts seems to be in a very digestible and 
utilizable form. It should be remembered that nuts 
are the form of food best suited to replace meat. This 
is made clear from the comparison in the table. The 
price should, therefore, be compared with that of meat 
rather than with that of cereals. 



CHAPTER VIII 

PERISHABLE FOODS MEAT, POULTRY, FISH 

MEAT is a form of food which requires very little 
expenditure of force for its assimilation, since 
that work was done by the animal when living, and 
man avails himself of it. Rightly used, it forms a val- 
uable addition to man's diet. The consumption of meat 
has steadily increased in spite of the increase in price, 
which in England is said to have risen 35 per cent in 
the last twenty-two years. The amount consumed each 
day varies from one-tenth of a pound to two pounds 
a head. 

Since meat contains 40 to 50 per cent of water and 
moisture is the prime requisite for the development of 
bacteria, it is readily seen that meat is nearly as perish- 
able as milk, which has only 10 to 15 per cent more of 
water. 

Butcher's meat as it has been obtained in small 
communities was the last food to be suspected. But, 
as in the case of milk, the concentration of population 
on small areas has necessitated the transportation of 
raw or frozen meat and poultry long distances, and the 
keeping of large quantities for weeks or months. Peo- 
ple insist on living so crowded together and have devel- 
oped such an insatiable appetite for meat that the local 
abattoirs are unable to supply the demand, and a large 

107 



I08 FOOD MATERIALS 

part of any meat supply, even in the country, comes 
from the great packing houses of the Middle West. 

Recourse must be had to the wild lands of the semi- 
arid regions for ranches, and large packing houses must 
be placed within reach of the ranches in order to save 
the transportation of so much live weight ; for an animal 
when dressed shrinks to less than half its weight, and 
of this no more than one-half goes as meat to the city 
markets. 

The various reports on the packing houses and the 
discussions of them in the papers have brought the ques- 
tion so vividly before the country at large that there is 
no need of repeating it here. 

It is the demand for meat and the necessity for its 
long transportation, together with an unwillingness to 
pay the price of cleanliness (as in the case of milk), 
which has led to abuses now in a fair way to be 
remedied. 

There is danger, however, of the public relying on 
the crusade against unclean methods of packing to give 
a safe product on the table. 

Perishable foods must be guarded from start to 
finish if they are to be eaten with safety. The meat 
must be kept clean from the time it leaves the packing 
house until it reaches our tables. The retail meat 
dealer should have means to keep uncontaminated the 
stock of meat that he gets from the wholesale dealer. 

In the few cities where public-spirited women have 
looked into the markets there have been revealed low 
standards of sanitation as bad as anything published 
about the packing houses. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS lOQ 

Another danger is from the exposure of meats in 
warm weather to flies. In spite of cook books, meat 
from the open market ought to be washed (not soaked, 
but washed clean), and then dried with a cloth. But 
if the meat is kept under cover on a counter the storage 
place must be ventilated, since decay sets in sooner in 
the warmer, close air. 

In cleaning meat, all creases and flaps should be 
carefully looked to and clots of blood removed, for such 
harbor the organisms of decay. In institutions, board- 
ing houses, and kitchens where much work goes on the 
tendency is to neglect such matters. 

One precaution must be given : Such washed meat 
should be put at once into the pot or oven, since a 
watery surface that favors bacterial action is substituted 
for the dried film of the long exposed surface. A case 
of severe illness known to the author was undoubtedly 
caused by the washing of pieces of fowl for fricassee the 
night before they were cooked and leaving them packed 
in a mass. 

Protection against diseased meats we must leave to 
the inspectors, for this should be done at the time of 
killing, or again in the large markets. In this matter 
the people should be protected from the greed of any 
dealer as well as from accidental overlooking of cases. 

Cooked meats exposed for sale should be always 
kept from flies, since such are not washed before eating. 

The housewife's duty is concerned not so much with 
the packing house, but rather with the whole period, 
from the time when the meat leaves the cold storage 
and is exposed for sale till it reaches her own refrigera- 
tors and cooking vessels and is served on her table. 



no FOOD MATERIALS 

In the market she can insist upon cleanliness in 
handling, can agitate the matter of hot water for clean- 
ing the hands, can see that non-absorbent paper is 
always used, that there is a quick removal of all waste, 
and the shortest possible exposure of raw surfaces. 

If the slaughter house were as aseptic as a hospital 
operating room, and if the meat were placed in the 
refrigerator car in a perfect condition, it would not, 
with present careless and ignorant habits, come to our 
tables in a fresh condition. Some change goes on dur- 
ing the long journey even in the cold. The warm, 
dusty air of the meat market where it is exposed for 
sale, the dirty hands coming in contact with it in a 
dozen ways before it reaches the consumer's kitchen, 
the woeful lack of cleanliness in most kitchens (I say 
**most" advisedly from a bacterial standpoint), account 
for the many cases of ptomaine poisoning that we 
read of. 

It is much to be desired that Farmers' Institutes 
should take up the matter of hot water and clean hands 
in reference to the whole question of clean and safe 
food. As was said in regard to milk, the old-time 
care of the farmer's wife has been replaced in too 
many cases by ignorant ''help," who innocently allow 
many unsanitary practices which a little teaching would 
correct. 

It is fortunate that the odor of putrefaction is so 
pronounced that a cultivated sense of smell may detect 
danger. Custom has sanctioned so " high " a flavor, 
however, that poultry especially is frequently set before 
one in an evident state of decomposition. Some of the 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS III 

worst cases of ptomaine poisoning on record have been 
caused by eating soup made from such fowls. These 
toxic substances are not destroyed by heat and are 
soluble, so that while the meat itself may frequently 
be eaten with impunity, the broth causes illness. 

The sale of poultry is becoming a matter of strict 
legislation. Authorities differ, as usual, regarding the 
comparative danger from the easy access of bacteria to 
drawn poultry, or from the decomposition of the undrawn 
entrails. 

*' Ordinarily poultry will remain sweet for a week or 
more in a temperature of 50° F., but if it is to be kept 
longer it must be stored in a dry place at a temperature 
no higher than 34° F. In such cold storage it will 
keep almost indefinitely." ^ 

It is to be feared that advantage has sometimes been 
taken of this fact to keep poultry ''almost indefinitely." 

If drawn carelessly, bits of liver or lungs are left 
and easily decay, and parts become infected by unclean 
hands, and slow decomposition goes on to burst into 
flame, as it were, while the article is in transit to the 
consumer. The Southern practice of killing as needed 
has much to recommend it from this point of view. 

There is a certain risk of rapid decomposition of 
cold storage meats in hot weather which may be avoided 
by the use of superficial preservatives. If the meat was 
properly washed this would do no great harm, but too 
many cooks do not clean the surface sufficiently. 

Cured meats, salted, smoked, and dried, should, of 
course, be prepared from sound material. The fre- 

1 Farmers' Bulletin No. i8o. 



112 FOOD MATERIALS 

quency with which bad tongue and corned beef are 
found leads to the conckision that local butchers 
are careless. There is a temptation to put into the 
brine for corned beef meat that is too far gone to sell 
otherwise. 

Meats once decayed cannot be made fit for human 
food by any process. To find out that they are spoiled 
is the cook's province before they go into the pot. 

Sausages readily lend themselves both to filling and 
preserving. In fact, a bright-colored meat is always 
to be suspected. 

Some preservatives, notably sulphites, prevent the 
odor and appearance of decay but permit a softening 
and deterioration of the fiber ; others applied to meat 
already in process of decay may retard the exterior 
changes sufficiently to prevent a decided odor and 
leave the interior in an unfit condition. 

The great danger of these toxic products of meat 
decay may well make it a crime to place on the market 
cuts with a possible taint. 

The same general remarks apply to game and fish. 
There must be freshness and care in handling and 
cleaning before cooking, and an examination for spots 
already in process of decay. 

If salted and cured fish are always soaked before 
preparing for the table, any borax or other preservative 
that may have been used will be washed off. 

A word may be welcome on the much discussed 
subject of oysters and clams. 

It seems incredible that any one would even consider 
fattening oysters under the mouths of sewers or digging 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I I 3 

clams on a bank washed daily by the diluted sewage 
of a city ; yet such is the practice. It is only another 
case of indifference on the part of the public to what 
is going on under its eyes. The only safe oyster or 
clam is one knozvn by the purchaser to have been raised 
and prepared for market in water free from sewage. 
If one fears preservatives in barreled oysters, they may 
be washed and the liquid thrown away. 

The best remedy for the condition of the meat 
market, as well as of the other markets, is to include 
in all public school education lessons in marketing and 
the appearance of fresh, untainted, untreated goods, 
to inculcate an independence which means a self- 
protection. 

The constant cry for legal protection is a confession 
of weakness, of indolence, and of lack of fiber to win 
a way for one's self, which argues ill for the future of 
the republic. Food is an important element in effect- 
ive life which should be studied, and to whose safe 
purchase and wholesome preparation time should be 
given unstintingly. 

Clean markets mean a higher price for products, but 
the public will support the endeavor just as soon as it is 
convinced of the necessity and increased value of the 
materials. Glass cases are now commonly used in 
the department stores, and thus an effort is made 
to eliminate some sources of danger present in the 
markets. 



CHAPTER IX 

PERISHABLE FOODS VEGETABLES AND FRUITS 

T VEGETABLES are usually understood to include 
^ certain roots and tubers, as the potato, sweet 
potato, turnip, onion, carrot, parsnip, and beet, with 
some fruits, as the tomato, squash, and cucumber. 
These are used in the fresh condition, and are not 
subject to adulteration. They are largely composed 
of water, 75 to 95 per cent. The small nutritive value 
which they possess is due to the starch and sugar, and 
not to the nitrogenous material, which is present in 
small quantity only. The percentage of *'ash" is 
higher than in cereals, and contains more potassium 
salts. 

When much salted meat is eaten, fruit and vegeta- 
bles are very essential correctives of diet on account 
of the acid and possibly on account of the potassium 
salts, which are supposed to replace the excess of 
sodium salts taken with the meat. 

The common vegetables, onions, carrots, parsnips, 
etc, need not be discussed save to emphasize the neces- 
sity of cleaning them, and the value of the special 
substance contained in the diet. They form a large 
part of the ready diets of the various countries. 

Greens, spinach, asparagus, lettuce, celery, and the 
like, are to be watched for contamination from soil 
fertilizers and unclean handling. Peas and beans, if 

114 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS II 5 

purchased shelled, should be washed for the same 
reasons. 

An illustration of possible dangers in the use of 
uncooked vegetables is found in the prevalence • of hook 
worm disease in Panama, where, owing to the fertilizing 
with night soil of the ground in which lettuce is grown, 
the lettuce, after being washed in cold water, must be 
plunged into hot water and then cooled on ice. In 
Manila special cleaning of vegetables is needed on 
account of the dysentery amoeba. Many mysterious 
cases of disease doubtless arise from eating imperfectly 
cleaned green foods. 

All vegetables which grow in or in contact with the 
ground, especially today, when spraying with poison is 
so widely resorted to, should be thoroughly cleaned 
before cooking. For the same reason currants, goose- 
berries, and grapes should be washed before eating 
raw. In short, here, as everywhere, cleanHness is the 
watchword. 

There is little danger in the use of vegetables and 
fruits as food if they are fresh, not wilted, and are fully 
grown or ripened. They add a certain bulk to the 
meal which seems to favor digestion. 

The seeds of the Legimiinosce, peas, beans, and 
lentils, may be called meat substitutes, since they 
contain about 25 per cent of nitrogenous substance, 
12 per cent of water, and 50 per cent of starch. 
As dried seeds they should stand next in importance 
to the cereals ; but since beans and peas especially are 
eaten green, as vegetables, even more than in the dried 
state, they cannot be omitted in this list. 



Il6 FOOD MATERIALS 

This form of food is not sufficiently appreciated, 
especially by working people. It should be eaten with 
starch or fat foods. Hence the New England dish of 
baked beans with pork was a perfectly suitable and 
well-proportioned food for people whose life was spent 
largely in the open air in arduous pioneer work. The 
nutritious seeds are less easily digested than the cereals. 
The ''ash " contains more lime and less phosphates. 

The vegetarian and some subtropical peoples obtain 
their proteid food largely from these foods. The fri- 
joles of the Mexican, the soy bean of the Chinese and 
Japanese, the lentil of Egypt, and the various European 
varieties furnish a large portion of mankind with an 
inexpensive substitute for meat. 

The soy, or soja, bean {Glyciiie Jiispida or Soja 
hispida) has several varieties, all native of the East. 
It is being introduced quite extensively into the United 
States. It contains a high per cent of proteid, and the 
carbohydrate seems to be different from the other 
beans. It furnishes the best source of diabetic food, 
since starch is entirely absent. 

FRUITS 

Fruits, so called — apple, pear, grape, peach, orange, 
etc. — contain sugar, instead of the starch of the vege- 
table, and also an acid which gives a pleasant relish and 
is a stimulant to the appetite. The general composition 
of fruits may be stated at 85 per cent water, 8 per cent 
sugar, and i per cent acid. 

The ripening of fruits is a chemical change of the 
more solid, gummy, or starchy substances to the soluble 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 11/ 

Sugars dissolved in the water juices, for fruits are even 
higher in water content than milk. The delicate skin 
of many fruits is readily punctured and access is made 
easy for micro-organisms always lying in wait, and as 
soon as the skin becomes cracked decay sets in. 

The exposure on the street of fruits, especially those 
with rough skins or crushable berries, as raspberries, 
blackberries, etc. — a collecting ground for dust — ren- 
ders them unfit for food without more thorough washing 
than they often receive or it is possible to give them. 
Children who buy and eat them from the stand run 
great risks, perhaps not from deadly poisons, but of 
digestive disturbances which may lead to fatal illness. 
The great increase of fruit on the market is not an 
unmixed blessing, since a greater amount of damaged 
fruit finds its way to the tenement house children and 
is as responsible for illness among those from five to ten 
years of age as bad milk is for sickness among infants. 
More careful inspection of fruit is needed. 

These facts should lead to a more careful scrutinizing 
of the fresh fruits, before they are put upon the table, 
for the micro-organisms which are present upon them. 

Apples are the American fruit par excellence. In 
1905, 2,000,000,000 bushels of this fruit were marketed. 
The apple is a smooth-skinned, solid fruit, not easily 
marred, and therefore readily transported without exces- 
sive loss from decay. It may be cleaned so easily that 
there is no excuse if it causes trouble. It has an agree- 
able flavor and serves as a condiment to other foods. 
The old-fashioned process of drying it in thick sections 
permitted the browning by an enzyme oxadase which 



I I 8 FOOD MATERIALS 

somewhat injured the flavor. Moreover, as we now 
realize, the exposure to flies is an added risk. 

The modern evaporated apples, sliced and dried 
quickly, serve, when properly cooked, in almost all 
ways as well as the fresh fruit. Sometimes bleaching 
by sulphite is resorted to. If the first short soaking 
water is thrown away after the fruit is washed, nearly 
all danger from the sulphite is averted. 

Nearly the same statements apply to peaches and 
apricots and plums. They are not so easily transported, 
being of softer flesh. Their outer skin is fuzzy, or 
downy, and hence holds more micro-organisms, and 
it cracks more easily ; on the other hand, they dry 
rather more readily. The dried plum is known to us 
as the prune. 

The peach is short-lived, and at best remains in good 
condition but a comparatively short time, whereas the 
apple may be kept for months, or even for a couple 
of years, in such condition that the cells are appar- 
ently able to perform their natural functions, though 
to a somewhat diminished extent. 

Grapes. About 1,500,000,000 pounds of grapes 
were raised in America in 1905, and of these prob- 
ably two-thirds went to the consumer in four and 
eight-pound baskets. 

The banana tree {Musa sapient imi L.), although 
extensively cultivated in tropical America, is a native 
of the Old World. It is said to produce more food 
to the acre than any other plant. Whether eaten as 
a vegetable, cooked or raw as a fruit, it is a valuable 
addition to the table. Banana flour is beginning to be 
found on the market and should come into favor 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 119 

The pineapple {Ananassa saliva Schult.), a tropical 
American fruit, is somewhat abundant in our markets. 
The pulp appears to contain an enzyme which is a 
powerful digester of proteids, and if separated from 
the irritating outer layer may come into use as an aid 
to weak digestion as well as a pleasant fruit. 

The date palm {Phcmix dactylifera L.), one of the 
most ancient trees, has a fruit which furnishes the 
desert Arabs and other wanderers with their chief food. 
A more or less well-founded suspicion that the dried 
packages have not been handled in a cleanly fashion is 
doubtless the occasion of the prejudice against this 
most nutritious and tasty fruit. 

That we shall not always be dependent on this 
supply has been provided by the government. 

'^The transfer from the great deserts of the whole 
world to those of the new of the unique date industry 
is an accomplishment of which the government may 
well be proud. . . . Though the attention of the public 
was first attracted to the possibilities of growing the 
foreign date palm in this country through chance 
seedlings that bore fruit and through an early intro- 
duction of the pomologist of this department, it was 
the exploration trip of Mr. Swingle to the Desert 
of Sahara in 1899 that first proved the feasibihty of 
starting commercial date plantations in Arizona and 
California. From the time when the first large ship- 
ment of palm suckers reached the Southwest until the 
present, the Office of Plant Introduction has had an 
explorer in some one or other of the date regions of the 
Old World, gathering plants for the government plan- 



I20 FOOD MATERIALS 

tations. Today the list of introduced varieties numbers 
over 170, and more than 3,000 palms, large and small, 
have been imported and planted out. The best sorts 
from Egyptian oases, selected kinds from the valley of 
the Tigris, the famous dates of Southern Tunis, and 
even the varieties from uncivilized Beluchistan have 
been gathered" into what may proudly be called the 
best collection of date varieties in the world. This 
search through the deserts of the world has revealed 
the fact that the dates of our markets are only one 
or two kinds of the host of sorts known to the true 
date eaters, the Arabs, and that those we prize as 
delicacies are by no means looked upon by the desert 
dwellers as their best. The search has brought to light, 
as well, the hard, dry date, which Americans do not 
know at all, and which they will learn to appreciate 
as a food, just as the Arab has. Already Algerian 
and Egyptian imported palms have borne and ripened 
fruit." 1 

DRIED FRUITS 

Dried or evaporated apple, peach, and apricot may 
be had in various qualities for a low price per pound. 
If the product on the market was originally good, the 
"evaporation" does not appreciably injure it. 

It is only when inferior and green fruit has been 
dried that one fails to receive the worth of one's money. 
The much derided prune is being so extensively culti- 
vated in California that it may come into the favor it 
deserves. Perhaps if it were known by its true name 
of plum it would gain in favor. 

iFairchild: National Geographic Magazine, June, 1906. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 121 

Raisins, figs, etc, have a nutritive value nearly equal 
to that of bread, containing 40 to 50 per cent of sugar. 
Raisins have proved an excellent food for Arctic 
expeditions, sustaining the animal heat under extreme 
conditions. 



CHAPTER X 

CANNED FOODS AND JELLIES 

THE habit of apartment house and hotel life makes 
it impossible to do much home preserving, and 
the difficulty of doing on the farm all that is needed 
in the few short weeks of fruiting time makes it inev- 
itable that the factory must turn out most of the 
product. It is true that much more may be done on 
the farm and in the country than is now customary 
in the way of saving fruits and vegetables when they 
are in their prime. The United States Department of 
Agriculture is preparing bulletins on preserving vege- 
tables as companions to Miss Parloa's on '' Home 
Canning of Fruits." 

It is possible to supply the table of a dweller in a 
large city with fresh hothouse grown string beans, peas, 
beets, tomatoes, etc, every day in the year, but to the 
country dweller and to the person of limited means 
there is the possibility of quite as good a flavor from 
canned goods at a much smaller price. Because the 
forced products never have the same fully developed 
flavor that the same products have in their proper 
season, many city people have forgotten, if they ever 
knew, the real flavor of fresh vegetables. The canned 
vegetables, when of the good quality that are put up 
in their prime, retain more of the true flavor than 
do those that are forced. They are more difficult to 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 23 

prepare than fruits, partly because of the starchy nature, 
which favors fermentation. 

Just a word here on the fundamental principles of 
preserving such perishable articles. It means killing 
all the low forms of vegetation, such as molds and bac- 
teria on the surface of the fruit or vegetables, together 
with any that may get in during the handling neces- 
sary in preparation and any clinging to the vessels used 
in the process. Heat is the best sterilizer, and if it did 
not injure the flavor and appearance it would be a sim- 
ple matter to "put up" any of these things. It is, 
however, a nice distinction to draw the line between 
the degree of heat needful to kill the undesirable plant 
life and that which harms the subject of the operation. 
Mr. E. F. Pernot, of Oregon, has made experiments on 
canning vegetables and fruits. He finds that the most 
successful method is the heating of clean, fresh vegeta- 
bles in jars of sterilized water. The jars are sealed 
and heated to 165° F. for fifteen minutes. They are 
then allowed to stand for twenty-four to forty-eight 
hours, after which the operation is repeated. Still 
a third time the jars were heated and the process 
completed. 1 

Again, these objectionable plants, while easily killed, 
have '* seeds," or '* spores," which endure a greater heat, 
and so sprout in a few days. This necessitates a second 
heating and greater danger to flavor and appearance. 
To obviate this, various preservatives have been added. 
In our present ignorance as to the effect of such 
additions on health it is wisest to omit them and cook 

1 Oregon Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 87. 



124 FOOD MATERIALS 

sufficiently to preserve the fruits and vegetables without 
them. 

It goes without saying that, other things being 
equal, a tall, narrow jar or can will serve better than 
a short, wide one. The cans of French peas are a 
case in point ; the narrow bottles of our grandmothers 
offer another. 

Vegetables contain more proteids, as a rule, than do 
fruits ; they also harbor more organisms, and are cor- 
respondingly difficult to keep. Compare sweet corn 
and pears, for instance. The small kernel is attached 
to the cob by a narrow hook, with plenty of room 
around the socket for the hiding of molds and fungi; 
these mingle with the corn as cut from the cob, and 
it is no wonder that the keeping of corn is more 
difficult than that of the large, smooth-coated pear. 

Great use is made of canned goods, from the house- 
wife's dozen jars to the tons put up in tins by large 
concerns. Most of these are wholesome and valuable 
additions to the bill of fare. When put up whole 
defects are visible, and it is chiefly from preservatives 
that there is danger. These are more probable in the 
handsome product in glass jars. Benzoic acid has been 
found, and in some brands both this and the sulphites. 
Sulphite preparations have been sold to the housewife 
to enable her to compete with the shop in appearance. 

The universal use of tin cans has led health authori- 
ties to watch closely for excess of tin and lead from 
careless soldering, with the result that today only the 
best quality of tin and lap solder on the outside are 
found on standard goods. In the earlier days of can- 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 25 

ning even condensed milk has contained enough lead 
to give rise to lead poisoning of children. It was not 
uncommon to pick out lumps of solder, several of 
them as large as peas or beans, from a can of toma- 
toes. With better knowledge, these poor quality cans 
are little used ; still the housewife will do well to 
scrutinize a few cans of each new brand to see if the 
joints are lap joints, that means, showing no solder 
inside, and if the tin is without evidence of action by 
acids. The poor quality tin is an alloy much more 
readily acted on. 

The danger from the solution of tin and lead is 
much greater when canned goods are depended upon 
for staple foods in camp in distant regions. It is 
undoubtedly true that time does increase the amount 
dissolved, so that dating would have a certain value. 

The cry has gone over to the coloring matter intro- 
duced as coal tar color. This is added from purely 
aesthetic considerations, and it is wholly in the house- 
wife's power to stop it by refusing to buy decorative 
fruits, jams, and jellies. 

Meats which are to be used for canning are usually 
partly cooked first, and then put into cans and heated 
and sealed. If the meat is in good condition there is 
no occasion for adding any preservative or extraneous 
substances. 

The housewife should see to it that each can is 
examined when opened, for both appearance and odor 
will reveal bad conditions nine times out of ten. Also 
explicit directions should be given to empty the metal 
can as soon as it is opened, and to put the can where 
it cannot hold water to breed mosquitoes. 



126 FOOD MATERIALS 

When proper precautions are taken the danger from 
canned goods is no greater than from articles purchased 
in the open market. 

From the extensive investigation being made in the 
state laboratories from one end of the country to 
the other this year (1906), it seems fair to conclude 
that many of the " minced " products sold under the 
name of meats have been "filled" with corn meal, 
which also allows more water to be held in the mate- 
rial than in meat only. Occasionally an excess of zeal 
for utilizing waste products has made these canned 
goods a dumping ground for scraps better sent to 
the fat extractor or the fertilizer house. In some 
cases preservatives have been added. 

But the public should know that the temptation to 
extend a finely divided substance, which to the unaided 
eye is homogeneous, is too great to be resisted by 
unscrupulous manufacturers. 

As in the case of meats, the products in which the 
original form of fruit or vegetable is not kept offer 
the widest field for both sophistication and adultera- 
tion, that is, catsups, sauces, jams, jellies, etc. It is 
said that, as in pickling of meats, these materials are 
often collected during other processes and kept in bar- 
rels or tanks until enough has accumulated for putting 
up. It is reasonable to suppose that this is sometimes 
done and that preservatives are added to such tanks. 

" Sterilized by heat and sealed from contamination 
by germs, there is no class of food stuffs in so little 
need of preservatives. It should be taken as almost 
positive evidence of careless methods in packing if 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 12/ 

preservatives are found present. These may have 
been used to prevent stock spoiling while awaiting the 
final process of canning, or to assist in preserving it 
from further deterioration, fermentation having set in. 
In many cases artificial coloring is resorted to in order 
to make the goods more attractive. This is especially 
the case with tomatoes, and indeed with them the 
matter is often overdone and they are colored beyond 
the natural degree. "^ 

JELLIES 

In the case of jams, jellies, and preserves, the igno- 
rance of the consumer who has never seen the processes 
of "putting up" fruit has permitted the manufacturer 
to palm off unsuitable articles. The buyer has no 
knowledge of and takes no pains to inform himself 
about the appearance of the pure article, and is easily 
persuaded that an inferior one is just as good. He 
pays the usual penalty of ignorance, in money, in health, 
and in self-reproach. It is possible to know all about 
the goods we buy, as was said earlier. The taxpayer 
supports laboratories for the purpose of protection, 
but all their efforts are multiplied because the buyer 
will not take the trouble to read the labels that the 
law has made plain. 

The people have this matter in their hands. The 
use of preservatives has prevailed because, as in many 
other directions, appearance is valued before quality, 
color before flavor. Indeed the average palate seems 
to have no discrimination. 

1 Report of Professor Willard in the Bulletin of the Kansas State 
Board of Health, June, 1906. 



128 FOOD MATERIALS 

Jellies are a sort of dried fruit juice. Many fruits 
contain a substance called pectin or pectose^ which forms, 
when heated with sugar, a gelatinous mass that will 
keep for a long time if put in a cool and dry place. 

Substitute jellies and jams are abundant on all 
markets, for they can be sold at a profit at a price 
which brings them within the means of all, and in 
most cases they furnish a wholesome variety and add 
a needed flavor to a monotonous diet. 

According to law these mixtures are to be labeled 
for what they are, so that no one need be deceived. 
Perhaps right here the author's suggestion of a high 
school museum, showing the characteristics of the local 
market, may be emphasized. A case in the hallway 
or some other convenient place where all the pupils 
may spend a few idle moments any day in reading the 
labels and familiarizing themselves with the appearance 
of pure and adulterated goods will do more than any 
one thing toward the enforcement of legal restrictions. 
As has been said repeatedly, it is ignorance which has 
permitted such a state of things as has been revealed 
in certain quarters. The Kansas Bulletin just quoted 
describes a brand of "compounded" preserves: 

*< On the label, which is covered as much as possible 
by the word Columbia, appears this statement : * Twenty- 
five per cent selected fruit, thirty-one per cent apple 
juice, thirty-seven per cent corn syrup, six per cent 
granulated sugar. This sample is colored with coal tar 
dye, preserved with sodium sulphite, and sweetened 
with glucose.' " 

Find out from your state bulletins which are the 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 29 

best brands on your markets, and do not try every new 
thing that you see advertised. 

The extension of these various processes for keeping 
perishable food for months and for transporting it hun- 
dreds and even thousands of miles has been so great 
a boon to explorers, to prospectors in the mountains, 
to dwellers in the desert, to campers and vacationists, to 
the housewife with unexpected company, that the good 
far outweighs the evil of a few spoiled cans, even of 
occasional preservatives. 



CHAPTER XI 

CONDIMENTS 
MUSTARD 

THE mustard of commerce is the seed of the plant 
Sinapis, of different species, ground into flour. 
It belongs to one of the most useful families of our 
temperate zone, the Mustard family {Criccifercs). It is 
a hardy plant, and grows very readily in our climate. 
The famous Durham mustard was originally made 
from the wild charlock {Sinapis arvensis), which grew 
abundantly around Durham and has a pleasant, 
mildly pungent flavor. The name is still retained 
as a trade-mark. The charlock grows as a weed in 
our wheat fields and furnishes a product known in the 
trade as Dakota mustard. Along the coast of Ire- 
land the fields, as seen from the passing steamer, 
look yellow with the blossoms of the wild charlock, 
or Charlie, as it is familiarly called. Black and white 
mustard are the two kinds usually found in the mar- 
ket, the seeds of Siiiapis 7iigra and Siiiapis alba. 
Since the whole seeds are to be had, the best way 
to study the condiment is to purchase some seeds 
and grind them. Several points of difference between 
this undoubtedly pure article and that which is bought 
ground will be noticed. 

In the first place the ground seeds have much oil. 
This is not the pungent, volatile oil {Ally I siilpJiocya- 

130 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I3I 

nide) which gives the flavor, but a bland, fixed oil 
which is always expressed from the seeds before they 
are manufactured into mustard. Next the color of 
the pure mustard will attract attention. There is no 
mustard of a bright yellow color, the brightest possi- 
ble color being a dull yellow. The bright yellow of the 
shops is either largely rape seed or artificially colored 
to suit a popular taste. Another noticeable difference 
is in the pungent smell and taste of the home-ground 
article. If such mustard is used for a time that of the 
shops seems very insipid. 

Mustard is one of the most universal and wholesome 
condiments, but its use in medicine is even more impor- 
tant. It is of the utmost consequence to have a genuine 
article when it is to be used as an active remedy in 
sudden illness. The balance of life and death may 
depend upon the quality of the mustard used for the 
emetic, the plaster, or the bath. Every housekeeper 
should see that her medicine chest is supplied with pure 
mustard, whatever may be the quality of that in her 
spice box. 

The adulterations are many. Probably two-thirds 
of the mustard sold is anything but pure ground seeds. 
The principal ingredients are starch from wheat, rice, 
or corn flour, turmeric to color the too white starch, 
rape seed, old turnip and radish seed unfit for planting, 
linseed, etc. 

Of thirty samples examined in the laboratory of 
the writer, twenty-one contained more or less starch. 
Hardly any seeds of Criiciferce contain starch ; hence 
its presence is a proof of adulteration. The blue or 



132 FOOD MATERIALS 

dark purple color which iodine causes in starch grains 
and the thickening in boiling water are the simplest 
tests. In eleven samples turmeric was added. This 
is readily detected by the microscope, as are also the 
other seeds. The per cent of oil may be used to deter- 
mine the relative strengths of a number of samples, 
since it is upon the volatile, pungent oil that the peculiar 
properties of mustard depend. 

PEPPER 

Peppercorns are the berries of the plant Piper 
nigrum, which grows only in tropical climates. Has- 
sall says that Malabar, Penang, and Sumatra are the 
three kinds most prized. Black and white pepper are 
from the same plant, the only difference being that 
black pepper is the whole berry dried while green, 
while the white, after ripening, has been deprived of 
the husk or outer layer of the berry, which is black. 
White pepper is milder than the black, for the husks 
are quite pungent The best is that from the whole 
berry. A good way to secure pure pepper is to use 
a little mill on the table, and to grind the whole berries 
as wanted. The active properties of pepper depend 
upon three substances : about 1 6 per cent of acrid resin 
and piperine, and i to 2 per cent of volatile oil. 

The adulteration of pepper is extensive. Indeed it 
is the exception rather than the rule to find a pure 
article in the market. Wheat flour, ground rice, Indian 
meal, husks of the London-made white pepper, husks 
of mustard, nutshells, charcoal, peas, poppy seeds, 
exhausted pepper and the mysterious "P. D." pepper 



AND THEIR ADULtERAtlONS 133 

dust, said to be the sweepings of the warehouses, can 
be imported for as many cents a pound as the prepared 
article can be sold for an ounce ; so that there is great 
temptation to use these harmless but not tempting 
mixtures. Time and trouble are saved by the purchase 
of ready ground condiments, but the price paid is too 
great in proportion. 

Of sixteen samples examined three were fairly good ; 
nine were made up of pepper and mustard husks, flour, 
and Indian meal. Most of the adulterations can be 
detected by the microscope, after a careful study of 
the structure of the various seeds and husks ; but expe- 
rience has taught the writer that considerable practice 
is required to become expert at the detection of the 
kind of foreign matters used. 

CAYENNE PEPPER AND PAPRIKA 

Red or Cayenne pepper is made from the ground 
pods of various species of Capsicum, a plant of the 
Nightshade family. The cayenne of commerce is 
derived from tropical species, but the pods of the red 
peppers which are commonly cultivated for pickles, 
when ground, make a very good cayenne. The pecul- 
iar pungent taste is due to the presence of about 
4 per cent of an acrid resin. The earher English 
writers state that cayenne is more liable to adulteration 
than black pepper, and alarming stories are told of the 
presence of red lead, mercury, etc. But the results of 
examinations made in this country do not show any 
poisonous addition, and the addition of flour, etc, is 
rather less than in black pepper. 



134 FOOD MATERIALS 

The Hungarian red pepper, or paprika, is a mild 
variety of Capsicum aitmiuni which is coming into favor 
as being less biting. 

Sawdust from red sandalwood and coal tar colorings 
are sometimes found in these peppers. 

The following figures are taken from official reports 
from Massachusetts : 

In 1 90 1 of thirty-nine examined nine were adulter- 
ated with plaster, wheat, corn meal, coal tar dye, dirt, 
ginger, pepper shells, olive stones, sawdust. 

In 1902 of sixty-six examined six were adulterated 
with plaster, wheat, corn meal, coal tar dye, dirt, ginger, 
pepper shells, olive stones, sawdust. 

In 1903 of sixty-one examined one was adulterated 
with plaster, wheat, corn meal, coal tar dye, dirt, ginger, 
pepper shells, olive stones, sawdust. 

In 1904 of seventeen examined six were adulterated 
with plaster, wheat, corn meal, coal tar dye, dirt, ginger, 
pepper shells, olive stones, sawdust. 

Samples examined in Michigan show : 

In 1 90 1 of twenty-seven examined nineteen were 
adulterated as above. 

In 1904 of 129 examined seventy-four were adulter- 
ated as above. 

SPICES 

Those spices, hke nutmeg, cloves, stick cinnamon, 
mace, and allspice, which are bought by weight and in 
the form in which they are gathered are not exactly 
capable of adulteration. But there is a certain decep- 
tion to be guarded against. An inferior or cheaper 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 35 

quality of the same or of a similar kind of spice may 
be mixed with or substituted for better or more costly 
sorts without any corresponding diminution in price. 

For instance, wild nutmegs are mixed with cultivated 
ones, bearing about the same relation to the best quali- 
ties that a cider apple does to a fine Baldwin. It is the 
same with mace and cloves, while cassia is so largely 
substituted for cinnamon that it is almost impossible to 
find stick cinnamon that is not mixed with cassia. 
To learn to know the genuine species with certainty 
is our only safeguard. Then if we choose to buy cassia 
we shall do it with our eyes open and without paying 
the price of the delicate and costly cinnamon. 

NUTMEGS 

There are three species of Myristica which furnish 
nutmegs. The best are the kernels of the Myristica 
fragrans^ and are called queen nutmegs. The tree is a 
native of the East India islands, but is also cultivated 
in India and Central America. The best nutmegs are 
those from Penang, which are about an inch in length, 
shaped like a damson plum. The kernels are usually 
pickled in lime water, to ward off the attacks of insects 
to which they are particularly liable. The weight of 
good nutmegs should be, on an average, one hundred 
to the pound, or nearly seven to the ounce, grocers' 
weight. Very fine ones weigh eighty and one hundted 
to the pound, or five or six to the ounce. If pricked 
with a pin the oil exudes visibly, and the pin also pene- 
trates readily. Wild nutmegs are small and pointed. 
They are inferior in the amount of oil and in the 
general fragrance. 



136 FOOD MATERIALS 

MACE 

Mace is the aril of the nutmeg, and its quaHty 
depends very greatly upon the kind of kernel on 
which it grows, the aril of the queen nutmeg being 
the best. 

CINNAMON 

The best cinnamon comes from Ceylon, It is the 
bark of a tree of the Laurel family, which gives us, even 
in this temperate climate, such plants as our sassafras 
and our spicebush. The trees are topped like osier 
willows, and the cinnamon used is the bark from the 
young shoots which form the bush at the top of the 
tree, and which are cut twice a year. A tract not 
much more than a quarter of a mile square forms the 
great cinnamon orchard of Ceylon. No other country 
produces so fine a quality, or so great a quantity, as 
the fertile and siliceous tracts of Ceylon and the 
neighboring islands. 

The most noticeable character of true cinnamon is its 
splintery, fibrous quality. It tears rather than breaks, 
and is in small, thin rolls. The taste is sweet and 
spicy, and it retains its flavor long in the mouth. 

CASSIA 

Cassia is used to mix with cinnamon, being cheap 
and abundant. It is coarser and in thicker rolls. It 
breaks readily but does not tear, and if chewed is gran- 
ular and rather mucilaginous. It lacks the deHcate, 
sweet taste and smell of cinnamon, having a peculiar 
woody, strong flavor of its own. 

China or Canton cassia, the Cassia lig?iea of the 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 3/ 

pharmacists, is the commonest and cheapest, costing 
about half as much as that of Batavia and one-fifth 
that of Saigon. It is the bark of a small evergreen 
found in Southeastern China. 

The tree from which Saigon cassia, the most pun- 
gent and expensive of all the cassia or cinnamon barks, 
is taken grows in Cochin China. It is not unusual to 
find 4 or even 5 per cent of oil in good samples. 

CLOVES 

Cloves are the unexpanded flower buds of the 
CaryopJiyllus aromaticiis , a tree of the Myrtle family, 
which is a native of the Moluccas, but which is culti- 
vated in the East and West Indies, Guiana, Brazil, 
and the Philippines. Like all the spices under con- 
sideration, the active principle is due to one or more 
oils, which may be and are extracted and sold as oil 
of clove, oil of cassia, etc. Whole cloves containing 
15 to 25 per cent of essential oil can hardly be said to 
be adulterated, although the stalks are sometimes in 
excess of the buds. Advantage is taken of the property 
of imbibing a large portion of moisture to increase the 
weight, and exhausted cloves are sold after distillation 
of the oil. 

PIMENTO, OR ALLSPICE 

Pimento is the berry of the Etcgenia pimento^ a tree 
of the Myrtle family, a native of the Caribbee Islands, 
and also cultivated in the East Indies. The berries 
have a fragrant odor, supposed to resemble a mixture 
of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmegs ; hence the name of 
allspice. 



I3S 



FOOD MATERIALS 



GINGER 



The ginger plant {^Zingiber officinale) belongs to the 
order from which turmeric and East India arrowroot 
are obtained. It is a native of India and China, and 
is cultivated in tropical America and Africa. The 
ginger of commerce is derived from the fleshy, creep- 
ing rootstalks, which are dug up when about a year 
old, and, if scraped and dried, give white or Jamaica 
ginger ; if left coated, or unscraped, black or East 
India ginger. Calcutta exports the principal part of 
the ginger used. Ginger contains, besides the volatile 
oil, an aromatic resin. 

African and Calcutta ground ginger is brown ; that 
from Jamaica, Japan, etc, being from scraped roots, is 
white or light buff. 

After being treated with alcohol in the manufacture 
of ginger extract, or with water for ginger ale, the 
residue is used to adulterate fresh materials. Rice, 
bran, linseed meal, cereals, and turmeric are also found 
as adulterants. 

Massachusetts reports give the following figures 
with regard to ginger : 



Examined. Adulterated. 

1 i 


Adulterants. 


1 901 
1902 
1903 


246 
224 


20 

9 


\ Wheat, rice, dirt, 

i turmeric, buckwheat 



CURRY 



Curry is not so extensively used in America as it 
deserves, yet it is found so often as to justify a word. 



AND THEIR. ADULTERATIONS I 39 

It is composed of a mixture of spices and highly colored 
with turmeric. It is liable to variations of strength, 
as are the spices of which it is composed. 

ADULTERATION OF SPICES 

In ground spices, as a rule, we find much reason 
for dissatisfaction. Their only merit now is conven- 
ience, not quality. Nutmegs, mace, and cloves are so 
oily that to grind them easily some absorbent like saw- 
dust or starch is added, and this becomes a part of 
the ground spice as the first step, whatever may be 
added later. There is, however, but little demand for 
ground nutmeg, American housekeepers having the 
good sense to prefer the whole nuts. 

Twelve specimens of cinnamon were examined. 
Only three of these contained any cinnamon at all. 
Even these were mixed with cassia and sawdust. The 
other nine were chiefly cassia and sawdust, mahogany 
sawdust being distinctly identified in some of them. 
Two contained a very little cassia and a great deal of 
sawdust, and the third was nothing but sawdust, there 
being no trace of any spice in it. 

All these spices may be examined under the micro- 
scope 1 for adulterations ; but, as has been said before, 
only experience will give the training of the eye which 
will render an opinion worth anything. Each kind of 
spice here mentioned has its own peculiarities, and 
after these are thoroughly studied the additions may 
be at once determined. The adulterations are much 

iSee Microscopy of Vegetable Foods. A. L. Winton and 
J. Moeller, 



140 



FOOD MATERIALS 



the same in all this class — starch in some form, 
turmeric for color, mustard husks for pungency. 

The following table is taken from the Massachusetts 
report for 1904 : 



Allspice 

Cassia 

Cayenne 

Ginger 

Mace . , 

Mustard 

Nutmeg 

Pepper 

Vinegar . 



Examined. 



192 

50 
216 

31 

226 

16 

54 



Genuine. 



154 
191 

212 
19 

195 
15 

333 
34 



Adulterated. 



5 
I 

o 

4 
12 

31 
I 

13 

20 



Per cent, 
adulterated. 



31-4 

0-5 

0.0 

1.9 

38.8 

11.6 

6.3 

3.8 

37-1 



VINEGAR 

Vinegar (vin aigj'e)y as its name implies, was 
originally made from sour wine, that is, from wine in 
which the alcoholic fermentation had given place to 
that which produces acetic acid. The whole of the 
alcohol may be changed into acetic acid by means of 
the vinegar ferment (^Mycodenna aceti), commonly called 
"mother of vinegar." A very Uttle of this in the 
presence of air is sufficient to convert a large quantity 
of alcohol. 

In the United States and Canada vinegar is derived 
chiefly from cider. The best of it is made by a long 
process of fermentation in casks. The casks are half 
filled and left, with bungholes open to allow the free 
circulation of air, in a warm cellar or exposed to the 
air. This process requires two or three years unless 
the change is hastened by the addition of old vinegar. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I4I 

A lack of patience impels most manufacturers to 
resort to a quicker method, known as the '' generator " 
process, by which the cider is allowed to percolate 
through a filter of beech wood shavings or birch twigs 
saturated with old vinegar. This process requires only 
two or three days. 

In France and Germany pure vinegar is understood 
to be made from wine, while in England vinegar means 
malt vinegar. 

Proof vinegar contains about 5 per cent of acetic 
acid, but that sold in the shops often contains only 
3 per cent, or even less. 

The methods of adulteration of vinegar are (i) by 
dilution, (2) by mixing with cheaper sorts, (3) by the 
substitution of cheaper grades, with the possible addi- 
tion of mineral acids, coloring matter, or spices for 
flavoring. Entirely artificial substitutes for vinegar 
are made up of distilled or spirit vinegar, that is, 
vinegar made from distilled whisky, brandy, or grain 
alcohol, colored with caramel and thickened with a jelly 
made from exhausted apple pomace (the refuse left after 
all the juice has been expressed from the apple stock 
by the cider mill). 

Wood vinegar from pyroligneous acid, derived from 
wood by distillation, is sometimes flavored with acetic 
acid. 

Simple tests of vinegar may be made by evaporating 
in a shallow dish. The residue from cider vinegar has 
the odor of baked apples and a slightly acid flavor ; the 
odor and taste of the residue from wine vinegar are 
decidedly vinous. 



142 FOOD MATERIALS 

PICKLES 

Cucumbers and various other vegetables, such as 
onions, cauHflower, string beans, beets, and peppers, 
are preserved in vinegar as pickles. For the finest 
qualities the pure cider, wine, or malt vinegar is used. 
These are usually preserved without cooking. The 
cucumbers and other hard vegetables, having been first 
soaked in brine, the soft vegetables, like beans, having 
been soaked in water, are then treated with boiling 
vinegar. 

In the case of pickles, a depraved taste has led to 
the demand for bright green pickles, and this taste has 
sometimes been gratified by adding copper sulphate or 
by boiling the pickles in copper kettles with vinegar 
and a little alum. The acetic acid of the vinegar acts 
upon the copper, forming a little acetate of copper, one 
of the most poisonous of all the salts of copper ; and 
this, being absorbed by the pickles, colors them green. 
Cheap pickles are put up in so-called ** white wine," or 
spirit vinegar. For the presence of copper, immerse 
a strip of clean, bright iron in the Uquid, and if copper 
is present the iron will become coated with a thin film 
of metallic copper in a few minutes. 

Olives are usually pickled before they are wholly 
ripe. They are soaked first in a solution of potash and 
lime, then in cold water, and finally preserved in a brine 
which may or may not be flavored with fennel, laurel 
leaves, coriander, or vinegar. 

A queen olive is simply a large-sized fruit and not 
a special variety. The ripe olive is growing in favor 
and is said to be more digestible than the green. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I43 

Capers are the flower buds of Capparis spinosa 
pickled in vinegar. 

SALT 

Salt is of universal use, and it has been known from 
the earliest times. It is found in a solid, rocklike form 
in many countries. Salt springs are not uncommon, 
and on the coast the evaporation of sea water gives 
sea salt. Rock salt is mined in Austria and at North- 
wick, near Liverpool, in England. A mine is now 
worked in Louisiana. Much salt is made in New 
York, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia by 
evaporating the water of salt springs. Salt is nearly 
pure sodium chloride, but it almost always contains 
small quantities of chloride of magnesium, which causes 
the salt to become moist in damp air, and which gives 
it the bitter taste often noticed. 

A little cornstarch may be mixed with salt to • keep 
it dry. If this is done by the manufacturer it should 
be so stated on the label. 

There is a difference of opinion as to the healthful- 
ness of salt when taken with food. Habit, rather than 
common sense, seems to govern the amount used. 

FLAVORING EXTRACTS 

These have had, periodically, highly sensational 
stories told about them. In the two or three dozen 
samples examined in the laboratory no harmful ingre- 
dient was found. There was a great deal of difference 
in the strength of the different brands. 

Most of the ''pure fruit flavors" on the market 
should be sold for what they are — artificial essences. 



44 



FOOD MATERIALS 



Since it is, in many cases, impossible to keep the true 
fruit flavor in extracts from the fruits themselves, cer- 
tain compounds are mixed to imitate the fruits as nearly 
as may be. 

Raspberry, peach, and orange essences are most 
complex in composition when artificially prepared, rasp- 
berry being made up of fourteen ethers and acids in 
glycerin added to alcohol. 



LEMON 

In lemon extract a large proportion of alcohol is 
required to hold in solution the valuable oil of lemon, 
which is insoluble in water. The temptation, there- 
fore, is to use weak alcohol, which does not dissolve 
the oil, or to substitute artificial acids and flavors. 
Methyl alcohol has been known to be used. 

The flavor of the cheap extracts is enhanced by 
citral, oil of citronella, and of lemon grass in minute 
quantities. The extracts of standard quality are col- 
ored with lemon peel, but as this coloring does not last 
coal tar dyes and turmeric are used extensively. 

Table of Lemon Extracts Examined in Massachusetts 



No. examined. 



Adulterated. 



Adulterants. 



1 901 



1902 
1903 
1904 



167 

(representing 

100 brands) 

16 



27 
3- 



39 



Foreign color and 
insufficient amount 
of lemon oil 



In 1903-04, of fifty-three examined by the New 
Hampshire State Board thirty-four were adulterated. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 45 

A convenient test by which the consumer may get 
some idea of the quaUty of a sample of an extract of 
lemon is the addition of about three times as much 
water. If the liquid becomes turbid on account of the 
separation of the oil of lemon, the sample contains a 
fair amount of this oil ; but if it does not become cloudy 
on the addition of water, the extract is of a very poor 
grade. 

VANILLA 

The source of vanilla extract is the vanilla bean, the 
fruit of the Vanilla planifolia, which is an epiphyte 
belonging to the Orchidacece. It is a native of Mexico, 
but is cultivated in tropical regions. 

The flavoring principle, vanillin, is found in fine 
crystals on the surface of the bean. It occurs in from 
I to 2.75 per cent, according to the variety of the bean. 
Curiously enough, it is least in the most valued grades. 

The following analysis of Tiemann and Harmann 
shows : 

Per cent vanillin 

Mexican beans 1.69 

Bourbon beans 2.48 

Java beans 2.75 

Vanilla is abundantly adulterated by artificial or 
synthetic vanillin and coumarin and with tonka bean 
extract. The latter is tjie seed of Coiimaronna odorata 
and some other varieties. The flavoring principle is 
coumarin, the same as found in sweet grass, vernal 
grass, and in sweet clover. 

Prune juice is also used to increase the bulk and 
give flavor to vanilla. 



14^ FOOD MATERIALS 

Table of Vanilla Extracts Examined in Massachusetts 





Examined. 


Adulterated, 


Adulterants. 


1 901 
1902 

1903 


73 
18 

25 


54 

15 
12 


> Coumarin and vanillin 



ALMOND 

Almond oil, according to the United States Pharma- 
copoeia, has the following composition : 

Oil of bitter almonds . . . 10 c.c. 

Alcohol 800 c.c. 

Distilled water sufficient to "make 1,000 c.c. 

The oil of almonds is obtained by the distillation of 
crushed bitter almonds or apricot seeds. Most of the 
commercial oil is from apricot and peach seeds, which 
give practically the same product. 

Since prussic acid, which exists in the unpurified oil 
of bitter almonds, is known to be highly poisonous, its 
presence in almond extract should be considered a 
harmful adulteration. 

Nitrobenzol, or oil of mirbane, is a heavy yellow 
liquid that is used as a substitute for the almond extract. 



CHAPTER XII 

OTHER MATERIALS USED IN COOKING 

SINCE light, sweet bread is one of the most impor- 
tant articles of diet, and since in the United States 
such bread is largely made in homes, and not in bak- 
eries, as is the case in Europe, the substances which 
produce this digestible food deserve consideration. 

YEAST 

Yeast is a cryptogamous plant, a simple cell which 
grows by multiplication or budding in a slightly sweet- 
ened liquid, converting the sugar into carbonic acid 
gas and alcohol, at the same time that it acts upon 
starch, converting it into dextrin and then into starch 
sugar. The process is technically called alcoholic fer- 
mentation, and yeast a ferment. Different kinds of 
fermentation are distinguished by the name of the 
principal product to which they give rise, as alcoholic 
or yeast fermentation, acetic or vinegar fermentation, 
lactic, butyric, etc. 

It is because of the evolution of carbonic acid gas, 
which is held in the sponge in little bubbles by the 
tenacity of the gluten of the wheat, that yeast is used 
in the preparation of bread. Wild yeast germs are 
floating in the air, and the leaven of olden times owed 
its efHciency to the cells which fell into the open vessel. 
The objection to this spontaneous fermentation is that 

147 



148 FOOD MATERIALS 

not only the cells of alcoholic fermentation fall in, but 
those that produce the other kinds, notably the lactic, 
so that bread-making by leaven is a somewhat haphazard 
process ; the result may be fairly good, and it may be 
very bad. The black sour bread of Germany and other 
European countries is made in this manner. The 
addition of hops retards decay of the yeast. Modern 
yeast is brewers' or beer yeast, even homemade prepa- 
rations being mostly started by it ; because both for 
beer and bread the alcoholic fermentation is desirable, 
and brewers, by careful study and experiment, have 
learned so to control the process as to obtain a yeast 
consisting of only one kind of organisms, Saccharomyces 
cere vis ice. 

When yeast is added to batter it is like the scatter- 
ing of a multitude of little Uving cells or seeds, ready 
to grow with extraordinary rapidity in a medium suited 
to their nutrition. These cells in well-mixed batter 
are present at every point ; and as each cell in decom- 
posing sugar gives off tiny bubbles of carbonic acid 
gas these bubbles are in every part of the dough, ren- 
dering it porous or "light." Although wheat flour 
contains only about one per cent of sugar, when fer- 
mentation is once started the starch is rapidly con- 
verted into sugar, and the sugar so formed into carbonic 
acid gas and alcohol ; thus the fermentation of bread 
goes on at the expense of the starch of the flour. 
Cooked starch is acted on more readily than raw, and 
therefore the addition of some boiled potatoes to the 
sponge causes a more rapid rising. 

There are two divisions of beer yeast, high {Jiaiite) 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I49 

and low {basse). According to Pasteur the high buds 
more rapidly, floats, and is produced by fermentation 
at from 50° to 75° F. The low sinks, the cells are 
more separate, it buds only for a short time, is pro- 
duced at a lower temperature (forty to fifty degrees), 
and is of late much used for beer. The best yeast 
for bread is that which floats. It is now prepared for 
the purpose, and when ready for use is skimmed off, 
drained, pressed in sacks, cut up into squares, covered 
with tin foil, and sold as compressed yeast. In this 
condition it is next best to the fresh brewers' yeast, 
with the advantage of small bulk and ease of trans- 
portation. If kept cool and dry it will be good for 
days ; and if dried, not in the sun or in the oven, 
but in a current of warm air, it will keep indefinitely. 
Packages of dry yeast are composed for the most part 
of yeast mixed with corn or rye meal and then dried. 

Yeast germs are killed by a temperature of boiling 
water, and freezing arrests their growth. The best 
temperature for fermentation of beer yeast is from 
60° to 70° F. 

Since the sole object of bread fermentation is the 
production of a porous loaf, Miss Corson's recommen- 
dation of the quick process of raising bread in two 
hours by the use of two squares of yeast seems to have 
a reasonable basis ; and if the bread is, as it should be, 
well baked, so that the inside of the loaf has reached a 
temperature of boiling water, there will remain no yeasty 
flavor. Many loaves do not become heated to this point 
even when burned on the outside, consequently the 
yeast germs are not killed. Such slack-baked bread 
is not wholesome. 



I50 FOOD MATERIALS 

Yeast is not often adulterated, but its quality may- 
vary, owing to carelessness in preparation, especially if 
it is homemade. There is no doubt that the com- 
pressed or Vienna yeast is the best article now at hand 
for producing the so-called raised bread. The color 
of good yeast is yellow or grayish yellow ; the browner 
its tint the more dead germs there are. It should be 
only a mass of cells with no fiber or tissue. Occa- 
sionally a blue line is seen ; this is due to the presence 
of Miicors, or molds. Such yeast makes bread which 
will become moldy in a very short time. 

SODA, BAKING POWDERS, ETC. 

The problem of making porous bread without the 
long process of fermentation, and the consequent loss 
in material which is converted into carbonic acid and 
alcohol, has often occupied the thought of chemists of 
reputation. The results have been : 

First, aerated bread, made by forcing into the 
dough, just before baking, carbonic acid gas prepared 
by chemical means in another vessel. 

Second, the so-called soda bread of this country, 
in which the carbonic acid gas is liberated from bicar- 
bonate of soda by the use of an acid, as muriatic, 
tartaric, lactic (sour milk), and the acid tartrate of 
potassium (cream of tartar), acid phosphate of calcium, 
or acid lactate of calcium. 

Third, baking powder bread, which is almost uni- 
versally used in the United States in place of soda 
bread. The great advantage to the community is, 
that while baking powders are composed of the same 



And their adulterations ii^l 

materials as those mentioned above, they are carefully 
mixed, so that neither acid nor alkaU shall be in excess. 

SODA 

Soda (bicarbonate, supercarbonate, or cooking soda) 
is chemically a sodium hydrogen carbonate, prepared 
by subjecting recrystallized sal soda, or washing soda, to 
an atmosphere of carbonic acid gas. The only impuri- 
ties likely to be found are some sulphates and chlorides 
remaining from the process of manufacture of the 
sal soda. 

CREAM OF TARTAR, ETC. 

The substances used to liberate the carbonic acid 
gas are practically reduced to two — cream of tartar and 
acid phosphate of calcium. The first is prepared from 
imported argols, a substance used by calico printers 
and dyers. It is the crust which is formed on wine 
casks in the process of fermentation. In its refined 
and purified condition it is sold for bread-making. One 
baking powder manufactory, at least, is said to use only 
that which has been chemically prepared. The price 
being from forty to eighty cents a pound, and in times 
of disturbance of foreign commerce even twice that, 
cream of tartar is the most liable to be adulterated of 
all the articles used in cooking. 

Terra alba, sulphate of calcium, or, as it is com- 
monly called, gypsum, is the substance most frequently 
used to make up lo to 90 per cent of the weight of 
cream of tartar. It is reported that fine bone ash 
has been found in some samples from the Western 
States. In Eastern Massachusetts the most frequent 



152 FOOD MATERIALS 

adulterant is the much cheaper acid phosphate of cal- 
cium ; and since this is itself used as a substitute for 
cream of tartar, the effect on the bread is not as 
much to be feared as if gypsum were used. If it 
shall be proved that a certain amount of potassium 
salts is desirable to counteract the excessive use of 
salt and salted foods, the much discussed cream of 
tartar bread may find its place as a recognized article 
of diet. 

Acid phosphate of calcium is prepared from bones 
by treating them with sulphuric acid, setting free a 
portion of the phosphoric acid. It is supposed to be 
a useful ingredient of bread, since it restores some 
of the phosphate said to be lost in the bran. 

Acid lactate of calcium is used for a cream of tartar 
substitute, and in many respects it promises well. It 
contains the same acid as sour milk, and is prepared 
from starch by the action of the lactic ferment. 

BAKING POWDERS 

Baking powders, prepared from soda and cream of 
tartar chiefly, are, when put up in tin cans with the 
maker's name on the label, much more reliable than 
any other form of bread-raising preparation. Some- 
times a very little bicarbonate of ammonia is added 
to secure a complete neutralization of the acid without 
leaving an excess of soda. If this amount does not 
exceed i per cent it can do no harm. As they are 
made in large quantities they are of a more even com- 
position than when cooks guess at the proportions by 
spoonfuls. The chief adulterant used is starch or 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 153 

rice flour, sometimes to the extent of 50 per cent. 
There is not so much adulteration as has often been 
supposed, if the articles are purchased of the large 
firms and of reliable dealers. Alum is not infrequently 
found in powders sold in bulk. The following simple 
tests may be of use to those who have had a little 
practice in chemistry. 

Good cream of tartar is soluble in eighteen parts of 
boiling water. Good baking powder is also soluble; 
a small quantity of starch present will give a certain 
opacity to the solution, but if in excess a paste may 
be formed stiff enough for laundry use. If there is in 
either case much residue insoluble in water which dis- 
solves in hydrochloric acid, phosphate or sulphate of 
calcium is to be suspected. 

A few drops of barium chloride added to the hydro- 
chloric acid solution will cause a white precipitate if 
sulphates are present in the substance under examina- 
tion. If the phosphates are to be tested for, the acid 
to be used for a solution is nitric, and to the solution a 
few cubic centimeters of molybdate of ammonia are 
added. A fine yellow color or precipitate indicates 
phosphates. Ammonia is sometimes found in baking 
powders. If present, a small lump of potassium hydrate 
added to the strong aqueous solution will, on heating, 
cause the ammonia to be given off in the steam, which 
will then turn red litmus paper blue. 

To test for alum prepare a fresh decoction of log- 
wood ; add a few drops to the solution or substance, 
and render it acid by acetic acid. A yellow color 
proves the absence of alum ; a purplish red or a bluish 



154 FOOD MATERIALS 

color, more or less decided, means more or less alum. 
If the substance were not acidified the test might be 
vitiated by the presence of an alkali, as in the case of 
a baking powder. Caution : Use a new solution, or a 
new portion of an old one, for each test. 

To judge of the quantity of any of the substances 
it is necessary to have a standard article with which 
to compare the suspected one. If the same quantity 
of each is taken, and it is subjected to the same tests, 
a very correct judgment of its quality may be formed. 
Acids should be used in glass or china vessels only. 



CHAPTER XIII 

RECAPITULATION 

GOOD Food for Little Money means those ma- 
terials which may be sown, gathered, and prepared 
largely by machinery, or those which, growing abun- 
dantly in distant lands, are dry and hard, and may be 
transported without serious loss and kept in ordinary 
storage. All such materials are too abundant and of 
too low cost by the pound to be subjected to substi- 
tution or adulteration. Wise providers make these the 
chief articles of diet. 

Good Foods Costing More Money are such as 
are perishable because of high water content, making 
a satisfactory food for the ever present micro-organisms 
of decay. The transportation of so much water (80 to 
90 per cent in fruits, 75 per cent in meats) and the 
need of cold storage add to the original cost, also to 
the inevitable waste, because of the soft character and 
frequent accidents in transportation causing delay and 
the risks of storage. Such foods grown out of season 
are those of which the supply for the market of the 
world is Umited, of which there are " not enough to go 
around." There is a temptation to use preservatives 
with this class of foods. All these should be scruti- 
nized carefully and used sparingly if the pennies must 
be counted in the week's accounts. 

155 



156 FOOD MATERIALS 

Expensive Foods, reckoned by the pound, are 
those valued for some special reason ; imported from 
the tropics ; or without competition in the market. Cer- 
tain of these lend themselves to adulteration or sophis- 
tication or to both, as mustard, cinnamon, vanilla, and 
lemon extracts, etc. The ready manufacture of arti- 
ficial flavors and colors adds to the probability of this 
practice. The remedy is a knowledge of the pure 
article ; then the others will have no attractions. 

Nutritious Foods are those that contain consider- 
able amounts of either or all of the three chief constitu- 
ents of human food : 

Carbohydrates (starch, sugar, gums, etc.). 

Fats and oils (meat fat, nuts, olive oil, etc.). 

Nitrogenous substances (albumen, gluten, casein, etc, 
found in meat, eggs, cheese, peas, peanuts). 

Foods Valuable for Quality Rather than 
Quantity of Constituents : 

Fruits for acids and potassium. 

Vegetables for essential oils (onions, cabbage) and 
potassium salts. 

Coffee for flavor and exhilarating effect. 

Tea. 

Such gastronomic qualities are widely imitated and 
frauds are to be looked for. 

Foods that May Become Dangerous : 

Liable to putrefactive decay with production of 
toxins (meats and milk). 

Liable to harbor germs in quantity (berries and 
vegetables exposed to street dust, hence to some 
disease-giving organisms). 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 157 

Liable to carry animal or vegetable organisms, be- 
cause of mode of cultivation (as lettuce fertilized 
with night soil) ; or because of handling (ice cream 
stirred by unwashed hands, ice drawn over spu- 
tum-covered sidewalks.) 

Unwholesome Foods : 

By nature : 
Green fruits. 

Strawberries for some people. 
Potato skins. 
Over-ripe fruits harboring worms. 

By preparation : 

Too salt, too sweet, too dry. 

By storage : 
Too long. 

Tainted before preparation. 
Diseased. 
Contaminated by dirt. 

Foods Safe and Wholesome by Themselves, 
but liable to superficial contamination by exposure and 
handling : 

Bread, etc. 

Berries. 

Vegetables. 

Meats. 

Sophisticated Foods, a drain on the pocketbook : 

Coffee containing peas and wheat. 

Mustard containing starch. 

Candy containing glucose and dextrin starch paste. 

Adulterated Foods — more or less harmful : 

Milk containing formaldehyde. 



158 FOOD MATERIALS 

■ Dirty or watered milk. 

Jellies and fruit extracts containing coal tar dyes (in 
excess) or benzoic acid. 

Cereal coffee containing real coffee. 

Extent of Adulteration. It is clear that the 
great bulk of the staple articles of daily diet are of 
excellent quality, with the one exception of milk, and 
that is now in a fair way to be much improved. Exam- 
ine any of the published hsts of the state chemist. The 
names of staple foods other than milk are rarely found. 
P'or the tons of flour and sugar and vegetables and 
fruits used, the alarmist is able to make a collection 
of a few ounces of spices, catsups, and flavoring ex- 
tracts, and to run up the numbers of these samples 
into hundreds. There is hardly a necessary article 
among them. It is only a depraved taste which 
requires green candy, pink gelatin, and yellow icing. 

Sophistication. The moral question is far more 
serious. It is degrading alike to producer and con- 
sumer to make and to buy things which are not what 
they claim to be. To trade upon the ignorance and 
superstition of the mass of the people is the lowest 
form of money greed. The quickest remedy for this 
is education, and the quickest means of educating the 
public is through the introduction of courses in domes- 
tic economy in the public schools. Once it was held 
to be necessary to read and write and cipher in order to 
be a valuable citizen of the state. To that we must now 
add a course in marketing in the broad sense, in spend- 
ing wisely. The pubhc must protect itself from its 
enemies from within as well as from without. To 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 59 

realize how far-reaching this one element of sophisti- 
cation has gone, it is only necessary to consider recog- 
nized conditions. The cost of living has risen some 
forty per cent within a few years. During that time 
the market has sold : 



$.025 worth of grain at $ 



.05 worth of sugar at 

.001 worth of fruit juice at 

.02 worth of starch at 

.01 worth of lemon oil at 



25 



.60 to .80 
.05 a glass 
.20, as candy 
.25, for extract 

Housewife's Duty. Look over your own house- 
hold bills and see what part these things play in the 
year's expense, take to heart the counsel of your state 
authorities, and put your work where it will tell on the 
care of the perishable materials exposed for sale. Then 
see that there are cooking classes which teach these 
principles. The manufacturers and the writers in the 
newspapers and magazines have much to answer for, 
if the coal tar colors are harmful, for they have fostered 
pink teas and orange luncheons, which can be harmo- 
niously arranged only through these dyes. The great 
American people have the remedy in their own hands. 
If they will buy intelligently, with the purpose of 
securing nutritious food and not decorative material, 
if they will keep to the staple articles and not be led 
by the will-o'-the-wisp of skillful advertising (we should 
be ashamed to be taken in by such bare-faced state- 
ments), they will save money and increase national 
prosperity by a higher degree of health, which will 
give more real enjoyment than is now momentarily 



l60 FOOD MATERIALS 

obtained by the consumption of these highly rated, 
sophisticated goods. ^ 

The Ethical Side. This would not have mattered 
so much if the taste of the wage-earner had not been 
brought to like these gaudy things, if he had not 
been made to believe that they were necessary to self- 
respecting living. He naturally wishes to have all 
that any one has, and he is made to think that these 
are desirable things. The fact is that intelligent con- 
sumers do not suffer from these frauds, either in 
stomach or in pocket. The great remedy for the 
oppressive increase in the cost of living is to educate 
the mass of the people in actual economic values and 
to make the most stringent laws to protect them from 
unclean handling of food. The crusade for clean milk 
must be followed by as vigorous a struggle for pro- 
tected window displays by ordering all food off the 
streets, and again by education as to the necessity 
for these regulations, for the greatest danger to health 
is found in these directions. 

Professor Willard, summing up the question in the 
Bulletin of the Kansas State Board of Health for June, 
1 906, says : 

" There can be little doubt that in the case of most 
preservatives, if not all, their presence interferes with 
digestive processes. Whether more so than results 
from the use of certain natural, almost unquestioned 
articles is debatable. If this be the case it would 
seem that the first and most strenuous efforts in food 
control should be directed toward securing correct 
branding. The label should show what preservatives, 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS l6l 

if any, are used and the quantities. An individual 
would then be free to use the article or not, just as 
he may partake of raw onions or leave them alone. 
With the conscious use of articles containing preserva- 
tives a fund of knowledge on the part of the public 
would be accumulated which would serve as a basis 
for legislation based on general experience. This 
might result in the complete prohibition of certain 
preservatives, while others would be permitted under 
proper restrictions. 

'' In respect to adulterations the problem to the 
writer seems simpler. An adulteration has but one 
purpose — that is, of passing off an article of a quality 
inferior to that which the consumer supposes it to be. 
Such deception should be repressed without mercy. 
Akin to this, though not identical, is the sale of pure 
goods of inferior, representing them to be of first, qual- 
ity. Against such frauds perhaps we will have to set 
the common sense and experience of buyers." 

It is not without interest to compare the results 
obtained in one of the earliest state surveys, by the 
author, at the request of the State Board of Health of 
Massachusetts in 1878-79. These results were the 
foundation of the first edition of this book. 

The author and her assistants personally visited the 
chief towns and purchased the samples, choosing those 
which seemed from local experience most Ukely to be 
below standard. It must be remembered that the num- 
ber of brands was at that date very limited. There 
were only half a dozen manufacturers of spices, for 
instance, and only a few sugar refineries contributed 



1 62 FOOD MATERIALS 

to the grocers' list. Chemistry had not then been 
impressed into the service of the manufacturer to the 
extent that it is at present. 

It was found that of 400 samples, purchased from 
141 dealers in forty towns, 284, or 71 per cent, were 
good and 29 per cent adulterated (chiefly cream of 
tartar and baking powder). This was before the day 
of the coal tar coloring. 

At a later date spices were examined, with the 
following showing : Twelve samples of cinnamon exam- 
ined, all adulterated, only three containing any cinna- 
mon at all. Cassia, powdered wood, and mahogany 
sawdust were found. 

Of thirty-two mustards examined, twenty-seven were 
adulterated, two only slightly. Only five were good. 
Starch, Indian meal, turmeric, ground rape seed, and 
turnip seed were found. 

Sixteen samples of pepper were examined. Thirteen 
were adulterated with ground rice, mustard husks, coarse 
pepper husks, and dirt. 

Twenty-eight samples of ginger, on the other hand, 
showed twenty-one good and only seven adulterated 
with starch, turmeric, and mustard husks. 

That laws do restrain manufacturers from adulter- 
ating their goods is proved by over twenty years of 
experience in Massachusetts. Laws were first passed 
in 1882. The State Board of Health's report in 1883 
shows the situation before the effect of the new law 
had been felt. Then the percentage of milk adultera- 
tion was 83.9; in 1890 it was 42.6; and in 1900, 28.9. 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 63 

Foods Other than milk were adulterated in 1883, 31.2; 
in 1890, 18.6; and in 1900, 14.2. Percentage of drugs 
adulterated in 1883 was 40.8; in 1890, 187; and in 
1900, 50.2, the only increase shown. 

The final word, therefore, is, first inform yourself, 
then work for better conditions in the community and 
nation. 



THE NATIONAL PURE FOOD LAW 

Extracts from the text of the national pure food law, passed 
by Congress on June 29, 1906: — 

An Act for preventing the Manufacture, Sale, or Transportation 
of Adulterated or Misbranded or Poisonous or Deleterious 
Foods, Drugs, Medicines, and Liquors, and for regulating 
Traffic therein, and for Other Purposes. 

. . . The term "food," as used herein, shall include all articles 
used for food, drink, confectionery, or condiment by man or other 
animals, whether simple, mixed, or compoundo 

Sec. 7. That for the purposes of this Act an article shall be 
deemed to be adulterated: 

Second, If its strength or purity fall below the professed 
standard or quality under which it is sold. 

In the case of confectionery: 

If it contain terra alba, barytes, talc, chrome yellow, or other 
mineral substance or poisonous color or flavor, or other ingre- 
dient deleterious or detrimental to health, or any vinous, malt or 
spirituous liquor or compound or narcotic drug. 

In the case of food: 

First. If any substance has been mixed and packed with 
it so as to reduce or lower or injuriously affect its quality or 
strength. 

Second. If any substance has been substituted wholly or in 
part for the article. 

Third. If any valuable constituent of the article has been 
wholly or in part abstracted. 

Fourth. If it be mixed, colored, powdered, coated, or stained 
in a manner whereby damage or inferiority is concealed. 

Fifth. If it contain any added poisonous or other added 
164 



AND THEIR ADULtERATlONS 16$ 

deleterious ingredient which may render such article injurious 
to health : Provided, That when in the preparation of food 
products for shipment they are preserved by an external appli. 
cation applied in such manner that the preservative is necessarily 
removed mechanically, or by maceration in water, or otherwise, 
and directions for the removal of said preservative shall be 
printed on the covering or the package, the provisions of this 
Act shall be construed as applying only when said products are 
ready for consumption. 

Sixth. If it consists in whole or in part of a filthy, decom- 
posed, or putrid animal or vegetable substance, or any portion 
of an animal unfit for food, whether manufactured or not, or if 
it is the product of a diseased animal, or one that has died 
otherwise than by slaughter. 

Sec. 8. That the term " misbranded," as used herein, shall 
apply to all drugs, or articles of food, or articles which enter 
into the composition of food, the package or label of which 
shall bear any statement, design or device regarding such article* 
or the ingredients or substances contained therein, which shall 
be false or misleading in any particular, and to any food or 
drug product which is falsely branded as to the State, Territory, 
or country in which it is manufactured or produced. 

First. If it be an imitation of or offered for sale under the 
distinctive name of another article. 

Second. If it be labeled or branded so as to deceive or 
mislead the purchaser, or purport to be a foreign product when 
not so, or if the contents of the package as originally put up 
shall have been removed in whole or in part and other con- 
tents shall have been placed in such package, or if it fail to 
bear a statement on the label of the quantity or proportion of 
any morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, alpha or beta eucaine, 
chloroform, cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide, or any 
derivative or preparation of any of such substances contained 
therein. 

Third. If in package form, and the contents are stated in 
terms of weight or measure, they are not plainly and correctly 
stated on the outside of the package. 



1 66 FOOD MATERIALS 

Fourth. If the package containing it or its label shall bear 
any statement, design, or device regarding the ingredients or the 
substances contained therein, which statement, design, or device 
shall be false or misleading in any particular : Provided, That an 
article of food which does not contain any added poisonous or 
deleterious ingredients shall not be deemed to be adulterated 
or misbranded in the following cases: 

First. In the case of mixtures or compounds which may be 
now or from time to time hereafter known as articles of food, 
under their own distinctive names, and not an imitation of or 
offered for sale under the distinctive name of another article, 
if the name be accompanied on the same label or brand with a 
statement of the place where said article has been manufactured 
or produced. 

Second. In the case of articles labeled, branded, or tagged 
so as to plainly indicate that they are compounds, imitations or 
blends, and the word "compound," "imitation," or "blend," as 
the case may be, is plainly stated on the package in which it is 
offered for sale: Provided, That the term blend as used herein 
shall be construed to mean a mixture of like substances, not 
excluding harmless coloring or flavoring ingredients used for the 
purpose of coloring and flavoring only: And provided further, 
That nothing in this Act shall be construed as requiring or com- 
pelling proprietors or manufacturers of proprietary foods which 
contain no unwholesome added ingredient to disclose their trade 
formulas, except in so far as the provisions of this Act may 
require to secure freedom from adulteration or misbranding. 



REFERENCES 



For more complete bibliography see Leach's "Food Inspection 
and Analysis" and Winton's "Microscopy of Vegetable Foods." 



Bailey 

Eccles 

Frankland, P. 

and G. C. 
Green 

Harrop 

Leach 

Richards 

Richards 

Richards and 
Woodman 
Snyder 



Thurber 



Winton and 
Moeller 



Sanitary and Applied Chemistry 

Food Preservatives and Their 

Proper Uses 
Bacteria in Daily Life 

Food Products of the World 

Flavoring Extracts with Essences, 

Syrups, and Coloring 
Food Inspection and Analysis 

First Lessons in Food and Diet 

Cost of Food 

Air, Water, and Food 

Chemistry of Plant and Animal 
Life 

Packing-house Industries, Cot- 
tonseed Oil, Manufacture of 
Leather and Soap 

Coffee from Plantation to Cup 

Chocolate Plant and Its Products 
Microscopy of Vegetable Foods 



Macmillan Co., 

New York 
Van Nostrand & 

Co., New York 
Longmans, Green 

& Co., London 
Hotel World, 

Chicago 
Harrop & Co., 

Columbus, O, 
Wiley & Sons, 

New York 
Whitcomb & Bar- 
rows, Boston 
Wiley & Sons, 

New York 
Wiley & Sons, 

New York 
Macmillan Co., 

New York 

International 
Text-Book Co., 
Scranton, Pa. 

American Grocer 
Pub. Asso., New 
York 

Walter Baker Co. 
Wiley & Sons, 
New York 



PERIODICALS 

Leffman Milk Inspection and Milk 

Standards 
McFarlane Flavoring Extracts 

167 



Medical News, 
Feb. 2, 1895 

In. Rev. Dept. 
Canada, Bui. 89 



1 68 



FOOD MATERIALS 



McGill Jams, Marmalades, and Jellies 

McGill Olive Oil 

McFarlane Highly Colored Confectioner)' 

Clean Milk, an Experiment in 
Its Production at the Ware- 
lands, Highland Lake, Mass. 



Lab.In.Rev.Dept. 
Canada, Bui. 104 

Lab. In.Rev. Dept. 
Canada, Bui. 1 1 1 

Lab. In. Rev. Can- 
ada, Bui. 112 

Woman's Educa- 
tional and In- 
dustrial Union, 
Boston 



Richards and Story of the New England Kitchen 
Abel 

National Geographic Magazine 

Technology Quarterly, Vol. Ill, No. 3 

Agricultural Analysis, Vol. Ill 

Proceedings of Lake Placid Conference, 1904 

UNITED STATES BULLETINS 



Atwood, D a - 
V i d s o n , 
Moncure 

Bigelow and 
Howard 

Bigelow 



Chemical Composition of Apples 
and Cider 

Some Forms of Food Adulter- 
ation 

Food and Food Control 



Experiment Stations Record (monthly) issued by United States 
Department of Agriculture. 

U. S. Dept. of 
Agr., Bureau of 
Chem., Bui. 88 

U. S. Dept. of 
Agr., Bureau of 
Chem., Bui. 100 

U. S. Dept. of 
Agr., Bureau of 
Chem., Bui. 69 
(revised Part 8) 

U. S. Dept. of 
Agr,, Bureau of 
Chem., Bui. 94 

U. S. Dept. of 
Agr., Bureau of 
Chem., Bui. 97 

U. S. Dept. of 
Agr., Bureau of 
Chem., Bui. 97 

U. S. Dept. of 
Agr., Bureau of 
Chem., Bui. 66 



Bigelow, Gore, Studies on Apples 
Howard 



Bigelow 



Chase, Tol- 
man, Mun- 
son 

M u n s o n , 
Coleman, 
Howard 



Studies on Peaches 



Chemical Composition of Some 
Tropical Fruits and Their 
Products 

Fruits and Fruit Products 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 



169 



Richardson 


Food and Food Adulterants 


U. S. Dept. of 
Agr., Bureau of 
Chem., Bui. 13, 
Part 2 


Tolman, Mun- 
son 


Olive Oil and Its Substitutes 


U. S. Dept. of 
Agr., Bureau of 
Chem., Bui. 77 


Wedderburn 


Food Adulteration 


U. S. Dept. of 
Agr., Bureau of 
Chem., Bui. 25 


Wedderburn 


Food and Drug Adulteration 
Laws 


U. S. Dept. of 
Agr., Bureau of 
Chem., Bui. 41 


Wiley 


Foods and Food Adulterants 


U. S. Dept. of 
Agr., Bureau of 
Chem., Bui. 13, 
Parts 4, 5, 6, 7, 
8,9 


Wiley 


Experiments in the Culture of 
Sugar Cane and Its Manufac- 
ture into Table Syrup 


U. S. Dept. of 
Agr., Bureau of 
Chem., Bui. 93 


Abel 


Sugar as Food 


Farmers' Bulletin, 
No. 13 


Atwater 


Foods, Nutritive Value and Cost 


Farmers' Bulletin, 
No. 23 


Atwater 


Poultry as Food 


Farmers' Bulletin, 
No. 182 


Hubbard 


Maple Sugar and Syrup 


Farmers' Bulletin, 
No. 252 


Langworthy 


Eggs and Their Uses as Food 


Farmers' Bulletin, 

No. 128 


Langworthy 


Fruit and Its Uses as Food 


Farmers' Bulletin, 
Reprint from 
Year-Book for 


Parioa 


Canned Fruit 


1905 
Farmers' Bulletin, 

No. 203 


Parloa 


Preparation of Vegetables for 
the Table 


Farmers' Bulletin, 
No. 256 


Woods 


Meats, Composition and Cooking 


Farmers' Bulletin, 
No. 36 


Woods and 
Snyder 


Cereal Breakfast Foods 


Farmers' Bulletin, 
No. 294 



I/O 



FOOD MATERIALS 



Experiment Station, Farmers' Bulletin, No. 42 

Bureau of Animal Industry, Farmers' Bulletin, No. 20 

Office Experiment Station, Farmers' Bulletin, No. 72 

Office Experiment Station — Meats, Farmers' Bulletin, No. 180 



STATE REPORTS AND BULLETINS 

Illinois State Board of Health : Recommendations to Municipalities 
Concerning the Sale of Undrawn Poultry. February, 1906. 



Miller 


Baking Powders 


Fla. Agr. Expt. 
Sta., Bui. 52 


Norton 


Food Adulteration in Arkansas 


Ark. Agr. Expt. 
Sta., Bui. 88 


Pernot 
Richards 


Canning Fruit and Vegetables, 

Preserving Fruit Juices 
Adulterations of Groceries 


Ore. Sta., Bui. 87 

Reprint from Re- 
port to Mass. 
State Board of 
Health, 1880 


Robinson 


Breakfast Foods 


Mich. Expt. Sta., 
Div. of Chem., 
Bui. 21 


Short 


Fat in Milk 


Univ. of Wis. Agr. 
Expt. Sta., Bui. 
16 


Storrow 


Composition of Prepared Cereal 
Foods 


Wyo. Expt. Sta., 
Bui. 33 


Snyder 
Snyder 


Studies in Bread and Bread 

Making 
Milling Tests of Wheat 


Minn. Agr. Expt. 

Sta., Bui. loi 
Minn. Agr. Expt. 

Sta., Bui. 96 


Snyder 


Digestibility and Nutritive Value 
of Bread 


Minn. Agr. Expt. 
Sta., Bui. 126 


Snyder, 
Frisky, 


Composition and Digestibility of 
Potatoes and Eggs 


Minn. Agr. Expt. 
Sta., Bui. 43 



Bryant 

Weida Analysis of Chocolate and Cocoa Univ. of Kansas 

Bulletins of the Kansas State Board of Health, March, June, July, 1906 
Kansas State Board of Agriculture 
Kansas Academy of Science, Vols. 1-20 
Illinois Expt. Sta., Bui. 91 
Illinois State Board of Health Sanitary Investigations, 1901 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS l^j 

Quality of Milk Affected by Common Dairy Practices. Conn Agr 
Expt. Sta., Bui. 42 

Connecticut Agr. Expt. Sta. Annual Reports 

New Hampshire Sanitary Bulletins (quarterly), Reports of Food In- 
spection, October, 1904; July, 1906 
New Hampshire State Board of Agriculture, Vol. 13 
Wisconsin Dairy and Food Commission (quarterly), Buls. 5, 6, 7 
Bulletin of University of Wisconsin (bi-monthly) 
Maine Expt. Sta., Bui. 84 
Nuts as Food, Maine Expt. Sta., Bui. 54 

Massachusetts State Board of Health Reports for 1883, 1890-93, 
1 900-04 

Massachusetts State Board of Health Monthly Bulletin 



INDEX 



Acid, Acetic, 140 

Benzoic, 124 

Carbonic, 150 

Phosphate, 151 

Prussic, 146 

Salicylic, 12 
Acids, Effect on Tin, 124 

in Butter, 58, 59 

in Fruit, 94 
Adulterations, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 
23, 27-29, 35-37, 44. 49. 55. 
58, 59. 95. 96, 126, 131-134. 
138, 139, 141. 153. 158. 160, 
161, 162 

Proportion of, 12 
Aerated Bread, 150 
Allspice, 134, 137 
Almond, 105 

Extract, 146 

Adulteration, 146 
Alum, 152 
Analyses of Cereal Foods, 67-68 

Cereal Grains, 85-86 

Cheese, 61 

Chicory, 36 

Cocoa, 42 

Eggs, 61 

Milk, 47 

Nuts, 103 

Tea, 29 

Wheat, 79, 80-81 
Apples, 117 

Dried, 1 17, 120 

Evaporated, 118 
Apricots, 118 
Arrowroot, 83 
Auto-Infection, 2, 12 

Baking Powder, 10, 150, 152, 153 

Adulteration, 152, 153 
Banana, 118 

Flour, 118 



Barley, i, 64, 65, 70 
Beans, 115, 116 

Soy, 116 
Benzoate of Soda, 12 
Benzoic Acid, 124 
Berries, 19, 115, 117 
Board of Health, iii, 10, 13, 35, 
48, 96, 97, 127, 144, 160, 161, 
162 
Books of Reference, 167 
Brazil Nut, 103 
Bread, 1,85, 147-150 
Breakfast Cocoa, 43 

Foods, 66-70 
Buckwheat, 82 

Adulteration, 83 
Bulletins, 10, 13, 17, 18, 22, 39, 48, 
50, 52, 96, 97, 100, 102, III, 
122, 127, 128 
Butter, 55-60 

Colors, 59, 60 

Composition of, 56 

Renovated, 59 
Butterine, 58 
Butternut, 104 

Caffeic Acid, 33 

Caffeine, 33 

Calcium Acid Phosphate, 152 

Candy, iv, 93, 97-99 

Cane Sugar, 88 

Canned Fruits and Meats, iv 

Foods and Jellies, 122-129 
Capers, 143 

Carbohydrates, 67, 82, 116, 156 
Cassia, 135, 136, 137 
Catsup, iv 
Cayenne Pepper, 133, 134 

Adulterations, 133, 134 
Cellulose, 65, 70, 91, 94 
Cereal Foods, 64-86 

Coffee, 40, 41 



172 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 



173 



Cheese, 60-61 

Composition of, 61 

Filled, 61 
Chestnut, 104 
Chicory, 35, 36 
Chocolate, 42 

Adulteration, 44 

Preparation of, 44-45 
Cider, 140 
Cinnamon, 134, 136, 139 

Adulteration, 136 
Clams, 112, 113 
Clean, 19, 53,85 

Fruits, 117 

Markets, 113 

Meat, 108-110 

Milk, 51, 52 

Vegetables, 114, 115 
Cloves, 134, 137 
Coal Tar Dye, iv, 13, 59, 98 

128, 158, 159 
Cocoa, 20, 41-45 

Breakfast, 43 

Nibs, 43 

Shells, 43 
Cocoanut, 104 
Coffee, 20, 31-41 

Adulterants, 35, 37 

Cereal, 40 

Houses, ^^ 

Making of, 38-39 

Preparation of, 37 

Substitutes, 39-41 
Cold Storage, 62 
Compressed Yeast, 149, 150 
Condensed Milk, 53, 125 
Condiments, 130-146 
Confectionery, 93, 97-99 

Adulteration, 98 
Conference, Lake Placid, 8 
Consumption of Cocoa, 42 

Coffee, 23 

Meat, 107 

Sugar, 99 

Tea, 24 
Cook Books, 18 
Cooking Classes, 17 
Corn, 124 
Corn Meal, 126 

Starch, 83, 143 



Crackers, 85 
Cream, 49, 50, 54-55 

Adulteration, 55 

Certified, 55 

Sterilized, 55 
Cream of Tartar, 11, 15, 151, 153 

Adulteration, 11, 15, 151 
Curry, 138 

Dairies, 50-53, 56-57 
Date, 1 1 9-1 20 
Desiccated Eggs, 63 
Dextrin, 91, 92 
Dextrose, 91, 92 
Diet, 18 

Articles of, i 

Errors of, 2 

Milk, 47 

Principles of, 1-3 
[25, Dietaries, 2 

Disease, 2, 18, 19, 48, 115 
Domestic Economy, 5 
Dried Fruits, 1 20-1 21 

Economy, 16, 17, 26 

Domestic, 5 
Education of Girls, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 

of Public, 13, 163 
Efficiency, 9, 19 
Efficient Living, 8 
Eggs, 61-63 

Desiccated, 63 

Methods of Preserving, 62 

Substitutes, 63 
Enzyme, 92, 117, 119 
Ergot, 76 
Essences, 144 
Exhausted Coffee Berries, 34 

Tea Leaves, 26, 28, 29 
Experiment Station Bulletins, 42, 
52,67, 123 

Farina, 8^ 

Farmers' Institutes, 1 10 

Fat, 43,67, 156 

Fermentation, 147, 151 

Figs, 121 

Filbert, 103 

Filters, 21, 22 

Fish, 112 



174 



FOOD MATERIALS 



Flavoring Extracts, 143 
Flies, 48 
Flour, 65, 79-82 
Food, I, 19 

Composition of, 17 

Habits, 19 

Infants', 75 

Infants' and Invalids', 84 

Materials, 19 

Milk as, 84 

Preparation of, 17 

Purpose of, 3, 4 

Unclean, 18 
Fraud, 13, 16, 29, 58 
Frijoles, 116 
Fruit, 94, 114, 116, 120, 122 

Dried, 120-121 

Sugar, 91 

Syrups, 

Game, 112 
Ginger, 138, 162 

Adulterants, 138 
Glazing, 35 

Glucose, 91, 92, 93, 94, 98 
Gluten, 65, 76, 82 
Glycogen, 91 
Graham Flour, 80 
Grapes, 118 

Juice, 13 

Sugar, 91, 93, 94 

Habits, 3, 18, 19 
Health, 4, 18, 123 
Home Economics, 8 
Honey, 95-96 

Adulterants, 95 
Hook-worm Disease, 115 
Housekeeper, iii, 6, 14 
Housewife, 9, 10, 14, 18, 159 
Housework, 7 
Hygiene, 8, 9 

Ice, 19 

Indian Corn, 75 
Infants' Foods, 75, 84 
Infection, 49 
Invert Sugar, 91 

Jellies, 122, 127-129 
Adulteration, 128 



Laboratories, iii, 126, 127, 131 
Lactose, 91, 95 
Lake Placid Conference, 8 
Law, National Pure Food, 164-166 
Leach, 28, 29, 85, 94 
Lead in Canned Foods, 124-125 
Leguminosae, 115 
Lemon Extract, 144 
Adulteration, 144 
Lentils, 115, 116 
Lettuce, 115 
Levulose, 91, 94 
Lime Juice, 13 

Macaroni, 79, 83 
Mace, 134, 136 
Maize, 64, 75 
Making of Cocoa, 44, 45 

Coffee, 38, 45 

Tea, 30, 31,45 
Malted Foods, 69 
Maltose, 91, 92 
Manihot, 83 
Maple Sugar, 90 

Adulteration, 97 
Markets, 108, no, 113 
Meal, 65 
Meat, 107-113 

Canned, 109 

Adulteration, 126 

Cured, 11 1 

Preservatives, in, 112 
Middlings, 81, 83 
Milk, 47-54 

Adulteration, 49 

Buttermilk, 50 

Cans, Washing of, 22 

Carrier of Infection, 49 

Certified, 53 

Clean, 51-52 

Composition of, 47 

Condensed, 53 

Evaporated, 54 

Food Value of, 47 

Skim, 40, 50, 60 

Sugar of, 91, 95 
Adulterants, 95 
Mining Wheat, 77, 78 
Molasses, 88 
Mustard, 130-132, 162 

Adulteration, i;ji 



AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 



175 



National Geographic Magazine, 

74, 80 
National Pure Food Law, 164-166 
Nitrobenzol, 146 
Nitrogen in Wheat, 81 
Nitrogenous Food, 156 
Nutmegs, 134, 135 
Nuts, 102-106 

Oatmeal, 74 

Adulteration, 74 
Oats, 64, 74 

Rolled, 69 
Oil, 156 

Almond, 146 

Clove, 137 

Corn, 106 

Cottonseed, 106 

Nut, 104, 105 

Olive, 105 

Adulteration, 106 

Salad, 105 
Oleomargarine, 58 
Olive, 105, 142 
Oysters, 11 2-1 13 

Packing Houses, 108, 109 
Paprika, 134 

Adulteration, 134 
Peach, 118 
Peanut, 105 
Pears, 124 
Peas, 115 
Pecan, 104 
Pectin, 91, 128 
Pepper, 132-134, 162 

Adulteration, 132 
Perishable Foods — Meats, Poul- 
try, Fish, 107-113 

Fruits and Vegetables, 1 14-120 
Phosphorus in Wheat, 81 
Pickles, iv, 142 
Pickling, 126 
Pignolias, 104 
Pimento, 137 
Pineapple, 119 
Pistachio, 104 
Plums, 118 
Potato, 83 
Poultry, 1 10- 1 11 



Ptomaine Poisoning, iii 
Preservatives, iv, i 

112, 123, 124, 

129, 155, 160 
Preserving, 122 

Eggs, 62 
Proteid, 116, 124 
Prune, 118, 120 
Pure Food Law, iv, 
Shows, 15 



55, 60, III, 
25, 126, 127, 



[63-165 



Raisins, 121 

Recapitulation, 155-163 
Reducing Sugar, 91 
Renovated Butter, 59 
Rice, 64, 65, 70-74 

Flour, 16 

Kiushu, 73 
Rye, I, 64, 75-76 

Sago, S^ 

Salicylic Acid, 12 
Salt, 143 
Samovar, 30, 31 

Tea Tablets, 29 
Sausage, 112 
School Museum, 128 
Soda, 12, 150, 151 
Sophistication, 14, 126, 158 
Sorghum, 91 
Soy Bean, 116 
Spaghetti, 83 
Spices, 12, 134-162 

Adulteration of, 139 
Spirit Vinegar, T41 
Springs, 23 
Standards, False, 60 

for Fat in Butter, 57 
Starch, 65, 69, 70, 71, 79, 83-84, 
85, 91, 93, 114, 116 

Sugar, 91, 92 
Substitute Coffee, 40, 41, 59 

Egg> 63 

Jellies, 1 28 

Tea, 25 
Sucrose, 87, 89, 91, 94 
Sugar, 87-101, 114, 116 

Adulteration, 96 

Beet, 89-90 

Brown, 88 



176 



FOOD MATERIALS 



Sugar, Cane, 88 

Granulated, 88 

Grape, 93-94 

Kinds of, 91 

Lactose, 91, 95 

Loaf, 89 

Maple, 90-91 

Maltose, 91 

of Milk, 95 

Powdered, 89 

Uses of, 99 
Sulphites, 124 
Syrup, 97 

Fruit, 12 
Swindling of the Housewife, 10 

Tables, 18 

Composition of Cereal Break- 
fast Foods, 68 
Cereal Grains, 85-86 
Cheese, 61 
Chicory, 36 
Fruits, 94 
Infants' and Invalids' Foods, 

84 
Nuts, 103 
Vanilla Bean, 145 
Tannin, ^3 
Tapioca, 83 
Tea, 20, 23-31, 33 
Adulterations, 27-29 
Green, 24 
Labrador, 25 
Making of, 30, 31, 45 



Tea, Sage, 25 

Taster, 29 
Tests, for Coal Tar Dyes in 
Butter, 59 
for Milk, 50 
Tea, 28 
Water, 23 
Theine, 25, 33 
Tin Cans, 124 

in Food, 124, 125 
Transportation of Meat, 107-108 
Turmeric, 131, 132, 140, 162 

Uncleanness, 18 
Unsanitary, 18 
Utility, Law of, 8 

Vanilla, 145 

Adulteration, 145 
Vegetables, 11 4-1 16, 124 
Vermicelli, 83 
Vinegar, 140, 141 

Adulteration, 141 

Walnut, 104 
Water, 20-23 
Wells, 20, 21, 23 
Wheat, 64, 76-82 
Durum, 79-80 
Whole Wheat Flour, 80 
Wood Vinegar, 141 

Yeast, 147-148, 149 
Yucca, 83 



OCT I 1908 






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